My Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

By Rich Kozlovich 

Thomas Sowell is one of my personal heroes and probably one of, if not the finest thinker in the world today.   He has been posting his Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene for years, but as he's in his eighties (update: he's 90)he's stepping back somewhat and I haven't seen one for some time.  

Here's a link to his archive.  Scan through it for the Random Thoughts articles, or any of his great pieces.

But that was the inspiration for having done one for myself years ago, and I said then I wouldn't do it again because it was a lot harder than you might think.  

Well.....this time it isn't so hard because  over the years I've posted a lot of thoughts on many sites, probably dealing with every subject there is: Geopolitics, environmentalism, medicine, agriculture, domestic and international politics and just about every science issue that arises.   I recently reviewed some of those comments, which has inspired me to again present some of My Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene.

Some have questioned my credentials, and since I'm an autodidact with no formal credentials for anything I write about, that's not unreasonable.  However, I say the same thing over and over again.  If I'm wrong: Prove it!  If I say things that are inaccurate: Name them!  

I base my observations on five things.  

• Everything is the basics.
• If you can see an issue in it's simplest possible form, it's easily understandable.  If it's understandable, it's fixable.  If it's fixable, it's explainable.
  
• History.
• I've read a lot of history books dealing with every issue I discuss.
• Logical fallacies.
• I spent a lot of time studying logical fallacies. 
• Seeing patterns. 
• The natural function of the human mind is to see patterns.  I just see them more easily than most, but we can train our minds to be better at it.
  
• I see farther deeper and wider than most everyone else.  
• Not because I'm so much smarter than everyone else.  It's because I read so much more than most everyone else.  After reading the thoughts and ideas of hundreds of authors, it's amazing how your perspective changes. You learn to read reality much better than almost everyone you talk to because you're able to see the nuances that aren't obvious to the general public. 
• And most importantly: 
• All the above teaches you how to think!
  

George Carlin remarked, 'Think about how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupidier than that". He also remarked, "never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." No one can anticipate when mass stupidity will strike, and no one can plan for it.

Internet Trolls - As time has gone by I've given up responding to internet trolls, and I refuse to let them spout on P&D because I realize they are:

• Corrupt.
• Unending time wasters.
• Masters at logical fallacies.
• Purveyors of projection.
• Obfuscators of truth. 
• Ignorantly self righteous 

I also think their paid thought assassins.  I’ve also realized the more they blather the less credible and less sane they look, except to equally ignorant self righteous ideologues who can't be reasoned with. 

We need to thank Governor Newsome, and his fellow Californians. With their efforts we now know that in order to make good decisions, have a good economy, live good and healthy lives - just do the opposite of California. Thank you California!

Truth is the sublime convergence of history and reality. Everything has a historical foundation and context. Everything we're presented should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. If what's presented to us fails in either of those categories, it's wrong!  Here's the really big component of truth. Time! Truth and time are always on the same side, and "truth will very patiently wait for us".  

I'm now 74 and I find my views and values, which historically were America's foundational social paradigm for most of my life, have become oppressive to some "friends".  We're no longer friends. It was their choice.

It's unfortunate so many have breathed the fumes of the fever swamps of the left for so long they will not accept the truth of history or reality.  Being in California makes it even more difficult to step out from the marching herd. Heterodoxy isn't for the faint of heart, even when it means embracing insanity. History is replete with such actions.

One of my customers was an old Jewish couple that have become good friends. She's a liberal Democrat who's now been "woke" to who the Democrats really are, and is going to vote for Trump. He's a Republican, which I didn't know for years, in spite of the many conversations we've had regarding history, politics and social issues of every sort.

I asked her once why Jews, who live, practice and believe in conservative values, raise their children with those values, vote for liberal politicians. She said she's a conservative in her head, but liberal in her heart, and I think that may be more common than is realized.

She now talks to her friends repeating the things we talk about and is going to vote with her head, not her heart. I thought at the time there was going to be a lot of that in the Jewish community in the 2020 election, and I expected that to increase, not only among Jews, but Catholics also.  

However, she told me her friends were angry at her for listening to me, and for two reasons.  I'm just a bug man, and I'm a conservative.  I clearly didn't grasp the significance of that.  I fear I didn't realize just how strong secular Jews are bonded to the Democrat party, a party that's clearly dominated by anti-semites who are working against Jews on many levels; not just Israel.   

•  Georgia's Senate candidates campaign with Farrakhan's man in Atlanta

As it turns out religious Jews went for Trump in a big way, but that isn't anything new.   Secular Jews went for Biden in a big way, 68%.  About 80% of white evangelical Christians voted for him.  But Catholics?  He didn't move that vote in his favor.  It was 50% for Trump and 49% for Biden.  If the figures from the 2016 election are valid, that was a loss with Catholics, since in 2016 he beat Hillary with 52% of the Catholic vote.  

 

With Jews there's a clear and definite break between secular versus religious Jews.  But with Catholics, there is a small break, but no real finite line of demarcation. 

 

Catholics overall don't want Roe v. Wade to be overturned.   Which I find startling!  Practicing versus secular Catholics being the line of demarcation again, but that line for Catholics is a whole lot fuzzier than it is with Jews, reinforced with this kind of fuzzy thinking: 

 

"Even though most Catholics said abortion should generally be legal, a majority also said abortion is morally wrong."  

 

If that's not cognitive dissonance, then there is no such thing as cognitive dissonance. 

Did Catholics move toward Trump in any meaningful way?  Apparently not.  While the secular Jewish vote did change somewhat in Trump's favor, that number was too small to be meaningful.  Certainly not as much as I thought it would for the obvious reason the Democrat party is probably now the biggest anti-semite gathering outside the Muslim world. 

So then, I think it fair to ask: What's wrong with Jews and Catholics?  

 

'Harmless' Measles Kills a Flight Attendant. Will Anyone Be Held Accountable?  What's truly tragic about this anti-vax lunacy are the parents who've been convinced by celebrities they're "protecting" their children's health by not vaccinating them. Then they contract easily prevented diseases and some die. What kind of heartache must that cause? What parents who've had this kind of loss need to do is start suing these arrogant celebrities, including Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey, Alicia Silverstone, Jenna Elfman, Charlie Sheen, Kirstie Alley, Selma Blair, Rob Schneider, Erin Brockovich, Danny Masterson, Juliette Lewis, Bill Maher, Kristin Cavallari, Esai Morales, and Oprah for promoting their ideas. And Andrew Wakefield should be in prison for the rest of his life.

 

Is the Impossible Burger Safe?  Here are the two things we can take away from this article with absolute confidence.

• First, an all vegie diet is unhealthy unless it's supplemented.
• Two, these food police are no different than all the other misfit activists - they're never satisfied.

So why are so many seemingly sane people trying to please them?

I have a suggestion. Since there are so many misfits who just ache to protest everything and anything, I think we need to create an Activist's Bureau run by the federal government. And they have to register with this government run agency before they can protest. In order to be a Certified Activist Bureau protester, they must meet the following criteria. 

• Require protesters to have started their own successful companies before we allow them actively involve themselves in public protests of others businesses. Having started businesses that failed will not count. 
• Require animal rights activists to start businesses that require them to feed the world or develop medicines without animal testing. Having failed will disqualify this person as an activist.
• We can require anti-energy protesters to start businesses that provide electricity to millions of people without any of the means currently being used. Nor will presenting future possible inventions that may possibly be invented at some future possible date count as a qualification to protest. 

Anti-pesticide activists must be operating a successful business that provides the following: 

• Actual protection from disease carrying pests without using registered or non-registered pesticides or chemicals in general. 
• Provide protection for homes without using registered or non-registered pesticides or chemicals in general against all the things we currently provide services for.
• Must be able to grow enough food to meet the same capacity that is currently enjoyed in this country. This must be done with the same amount of landmass without fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides.
• This all must be accomplished without grant money from any source, or tax incentives of any kind from the government.

Not meeting these criteria will disqualify the person as a registered Certified activist with the “Activist’s Bureau”.

If they meet the qualifications and are successful in the protest against any product, company or system the activists must be willing to undertake to provide the same service, product or whatever they have overturned. This must be done without using any of the means they have protested against. Failure to protect, feed or provide the services promised by the activist will require the activist to be liable to criminal and/or civil litigation.

Failure to be willing to meet this final requirement will require them to “just be quiet.”

There's a lot more, but I'm tired, and I don't want to work on this piece any more, and I've bigger fish to fry, so I'm done.  One of the few benefits of old age. 

Best wishes!