Random Thoughts for January

Random Thoughts for January, 2017. By Robert A. Hall

Feel free to post or forward.

I dedicate this month's posting to Thomas Sowell, PhD, 86, the brilliant economist and writer who has just retired from writing columns. I consider him to be one of the five or ten smartest people in the country. His numerous books are all worth reading, as he has a terrific ability to translate the complex into clear understanding for average minds (like mine, alas). I highly recommend Basic Economics, which has been translated into six languages and used as an economic text all over the world. I learned more from it than any other book I have ever read. I also highly recommend his books Race and Culture: A World View, Applied Economics and Black Rednecks and White Liberals. There are many more. He will pursue his hobby of photography, learned as a photographer in the Marines. His voice will be missed, but I wish him a happy, peaceful and enjoyable retirement and long life. My monthly Random Thoughts were inspired by his far better Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene columns. Look up his work.

Farewell by Thomas Sowell

https://www.creators.com/read/thomas-sowell/12/16/farewell

Last column, Worth Reading: Random Thoughts, Looking Back. By Thomas Sowell
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443343/thomas-sowell-final-thoughts-learning-history-experience?utm_source=jolt&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Jolt%2012/27/2016&utm_term=Jolt

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I hate those "End of Year Wrap-up" stories. Wasn't the news bad enough without rehashing it?

Democrats: The party of folly, favoritism and fantasy.

We get those shopper coupon magazines. Some of the restaurant "deals" are so low I suspect that only existing customers use them. I won't drive to the other side of town to try someplace new for $2 off.

How to be instantly vilified as a racist: Tell the same jokes about Obama that the left is telling about Trump.

Few things make for needless work like laziness and procrastination.

Apparently, the hard part about writing political news stories is coming up with a semi-believable plot or narrative.

The Eight Stages of a Political Campaign

1. Enthusiasm

2. Concern

3. Panic

4. Election or defeat

5. Disillusionment

6. Search for the guilty

7. Punishment of the innocent

8. Praise and honors for the non-participant

I was thinking of demanding a Wisconsin recount on behalf of my candidate, Evan McMullen, but I was a tad short of the $3.5M cost. And I thought it might not change the outcome.

Want to look smart? Proof your emails and texts to make them as error free as a business letter.

As blog readers know, I didn't vote for Donald Trump, writing in Evan McMullen instead. But you'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at the distress, anguish and wailing of progressives over Trump's election.

Trump saved jobs at Carrier with tax dollars. Then he saves tax dollars and kills jobs at Boeing by cancelling the new AF1. Government picking winners and losers in the economy, same old story.

I expect that Keith Ellison as DNC chair will be an even bigger asset to the party than Debbie Wasserman Schultz was. The Republican Party that is.

Socialism leads inevitably to Gulags, Guillotines, and Graveyards.

A Congressman from northern Wisconsin is getting grief for calling Madison a city of communists. I think crypto-communists would better describe them.

Progressives won't let up on water-boarding until we kill all the Americans whose lives were saved by information from the three terrorists water-boarded. Maybe we should ask them if they had rather they were turned into red much by one of Obama's drone strikes, along with anyone near them.

For eight years the Obots called any criticism of the president hateful or racist. Now it's the Donaldcrats turn to demonize criticism.

Page views of my blog over the week of December 4 to 11. Go figure.

Russia	13401
France	4953
United States	4437
Norway	1365
Germany	311
Poland	236
South Korea	57
Portugal	57
Ukraine	48
Canada	29

Note to Millennials: Work Wins When Wishing or Whining Won't.

I think the donkey became the Democrats symbol because it is as stubborn as a mule, but half as smart.

To media flaks, political hacks. and partisan pundits, everything their hero-candidate does is wonderful, brilliant or at the worst, excusable. To the same sorry collection on the other side, everything that hero-candidate does is reprehensible, corrupt or stupid. Doesn't matter if they are Obama or Trump true believers. And anyone who tries to be objective is battered in turn by both sides.

Not standing for the National Anthem or burning the American flag may be free speech, but it is also hate speech against America and tens of millions of veterans. Far more so that flying the Confederate battle flag.

I wonder how I learned some things. When I was a kid did some adult say, "Here, taste this. That's what bitter tastes like"?

In the future, no doubt we will see football games between the Raging Rantallions of Offend U. vs. the Stuttering Snowflakes of No Hate Speech State. There will be no blocking or tackling and the refs will ensure a tie so everyone gets a trophy.

I don't watch much TV, but when it's on I note that two big commercial categories are for miracle weight loss equipment and miracle non-stick frying pans.

There is nothing so ridiculous that progressives won't believe it if it is promulgated by the high priests of the Great Progressive Church.

The myth that savage and brutal cultures are somehow better than your own civilized one is not a recent progressive invention to traduce the West. It likely started with Montaigne's essay "On Cannibals" c. 1580.

The people screaming about fake news should know. They've faked enough news over the years: Dar Rather, Brian Williams, Benghazi was caused by a video, Hands up don't shoot, Hillary dodged snipe fire, Hillary was named for Sir Edmond Hillary

Found another smart phone, an Apple, in the men's rooms at Sam's. Turned it in at the desk. Guess finding two smart phones pays back for the cops finding my flip phone.

Program on TV was talking about how hard it is to convince people Heroin Addiction is a disease. Yes--maybe because it's a disease that people inflict on themselves because they think they are so special they can feel good and not end in the gutter like everyone else who uses Heroin. Or in the morgue. The program complained that in the US a heroin addict dies every 19 minutes. Takes idiots out of the gene pool in my view. I feel worse about the addicts who live and go on robbing innocent people, often their parents, or selling sex and spreading disease, or getting other kids hooked so they can make money to feed their habit. Would that I could I push a button and kill every drug dealer in the world.

As I have said, I pretty much accept all friend requests and allow all posts on Facebook. My newest friend is a woman in a pink hijab and robe whose name is Ramlet Mohammad. Be interested in her comments on my posts.

Civil Service was designed to protect government employees from politics. What it actually does is protect bureaucrats while they carry out their own political agenda regardless of what the elected officials or the people want.

People release fanaticism for calculated political reasons and are always surprised when they can't control it.

Honor is a demanding master. But it is the only earthly one worth serving.

2016 was the year that leftist's favorite president was rebuked at the polls, leftists most-worshiped candidate lost to Donald Trump (of all people), and leftist's favorite brutal dictator died. so it wasn't all bad.

Progressives can stop looking for someone to blame for Trump becoming president. Two people more than any others were responsible. Obama, whose "fundamental transformation" was abhorred by a large number of Americans, and Hillary, who was the worst candidate since Michael Dukakis.

The "Obama can do no wrong" people and the "Trump can do no wrong" people are mirror images of each other. If you point this out to them, they will become barking mad and likely froth at the mouth.

If a politician promised to repeal the law of gravity, rabid partisans on his side of the aisle would believe it as an article of faith and watch for things to start floating. "Put not your trust in princes."

The economy doesn't offer participation trophies to the non-performer.

Supremacism is a existential threat to liberty and life, whether it is the white supremacism of the Alt-Right, the black supremacism of BLM and the NBP, the Hispanic supremacism of La Raza or the Islamic supremacism of the jihadists.

Want to see college tuition drop sharply? Do away with student loans.

Remember if you are on campus, saying "pull your own weight" or "take responsibility for your actions" is hate speech and you need to give a trigger warning. And probably pay for the snowflakes' counseling.

When the Muslims exterminate the last Jew in Israel, you will finally see Obama's legacy.

The saddest thing about the Berlin Truck massacre was that so many of us--but not Merkle--could see it coming.

I returned from watching the latest Star Wars movie Rogue One, in which a look-alike Princess Leia from the first movie makes a cameo at the end, to the news that Carrie Fisher, 60, the real Princess Leia had died of a heart attack. Talk about feeling old fast.

John Kerry came home from Vietnam on the side of tyrants and murderers and has remained on their side ever since.

Pettiness for political reasons never plays well. The nasty pettiness of the left is driving people to Trump.

Looking forward to the Freedom from Religion Foundation protesting Muslim prayer rooms in public buildings.

Get the collection! My “Random Thoughts” from 2008 through July, 2013 are collected in this book: The Old Jarhead's Journal: Random Thoughts on Life, Liberty, and Leadership by Robert A. Hall

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Jarheads-Journal-Thoughts-Leadership/dp/1490500162/ref=sr_1_1?s=booksandie=UTF8andqid=1373907206andsr=1-1andkeywords=Old+Jarhead%27s+Journal

The Old Jarhead’s Journal is a collection of Random Thoughts on politics and life and Conservative Political Essays, mostly published on the author’s blog, including the essay “I’m Tired” which went viral on the Internet in 2009, “The Hall Platform,” “This I Believe,” and “Why I’m a Republican.” While they will be of interest to conservative thinkers, they are collected here in book form as a service to readers who wish to give a copy to favorite liberals and watch their heads explode. All royalties are donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

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Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=booksandie=UTF8andqid=1304815980andsr=1-5 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here: http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html. His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.