Protected: Test Posting – new security measures
Posted By Admin on March 13, 2024
A daughter changing her VW’s air filter makes me smile!
Posted By RichC on March 13, 2024
My daughter Katelyn’s driving habits are reminiscent of both her mom and dad — long commutes and a lot of driving. With those longer than normal commutes comes higher than normal miles on cars … and attention to maintenance.
Being a smart owner of her 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan, she sees to it that her VW is serviced. This time after getting pricey “air filter quotes” (above), she wisely decided to try a little maintenance herself; she 
changed her air filter without a problem (I knew she could do it!). This dad smiled seeing her not being afraid to go under the hood and save a few dollars made me smile!
Food for thought: “Marxism isn’t an ideology at all – it’s a tactic”
Posted By RichC on March 12, 2024
Political ideology has always interesting me. I was aware of different philosophies early on since an intellectual best friend from high school was way to the left and interested in Socialism and Marxism.
Charlie Matthews (Kamikaze) seemed like a leftover from the 1960s and even back in the 1970s and 80s supported the Marxist philosophy (I’m not sure about today 
as we’ve not talked “politics” for years).
To be fair, he was openminded, enjoyed debating and he never rejected my views or conservative political leanings with anger. We often talked/debated as we listened to music, canoed, sailed (he live/work on Brenich one spring) and we enjoyed traveling together during our first year of college (different schools – ONU for me and Knox for him). Ideological differences aside, we remained friends well after college and tried to say in touch by writing even when he lived in China (until 1989) and then Portugal.
To the point of this posts, a recent mention by Elon Musk regarding today’s “woke” mindset and lack of tolerance for opposing points of view, had Devon Eriksen commenting 
as to why he believes “Marxism isn’t an ideology, but a tactic” being used by today’s more “militant political left.” Anyway, I found it interesting.
The truth is that Marxists consist, by definition, of the weak and envious, and of those who wish to weaponize that envy.
There is no coherent ideology, no consistent set of beliefs, because Marxism isn’t an ideology at all… it’s a tactic.
It is the simply the weaponized narrative of unilateral oppressor and oppressed, applied to whatever problem the storyteller has.
This is why Marxism has no consistent character over time, why Che Guevara executed homosexuals in the name of the same Marxism that celebrates homosexuals over normal people today.
There was no change in what Marxism is. It’s simply that the tactics of Marx are being employed by different people. “Woke” is just a name for the current tactical application of Marxism by whoever is currently doing so.
This is also why there is an “oppression stack” among employers of Marxism. It’s because Marxists not only use the tactic against normal, successful, healthy people, making them out to be oppressors… they also employ it against each other, struggling to have the greatest appearance of victimhood, so they can wield the most power and cash it in for the greatest rewards.
The reason we are experiencing this surge of Marxism right now is that western classical liberalism is uniquely hackable by this tactic.
In fact, Marxism is a just the exploitation of a bug in classical liberal philosophy.
Classical liberalism holds that rights belong to everyone, and they must be most urgently defended in those who are most oppressed, without reference to any in-group preference, including an in-group preference for other classical liberals.
That last sentence is the bug. It makes classical liberalism into a suicide pact, a death morality where classical liberal societies will embrace their own destruction the moment an outgroup can convince them that its failure to thrive is due to oppression.
Western civilization can only survive if we stop letting people convince us to be too broadminded to take our own side.
Music Monday: “Cowboy in the Jungle” by Jimmy Buffett (1978)
Posted By RichC on March 11, 2024
A couple of weeks ago, someone mention Jimmy Buffett and an old memory song … from back when I was really just starting to listen to music, buy albums (or often dubbed to cassette) … AND to Jimmy Buffett — it was 1978.
One of the first albums that sold me on Jimmy Buffett was Son of Son of a Sailor. The 7th and somewhat forgettable song on side B of this album was “Cowboy in the Jungle” … but for those of us who listened to the entire album regularly … we knew it by heart. 😊
Fast forward to talking about concerts and venues with someone on Twitter, now X.com. I mentioned that Jimmy Buffett did several enjoyable “chats” and played music. It was difficult not to enjoy talking about him now that he is no longer with us … and rewatching this video. 
Anyway, I was fortunate to see him perform at the “mentioned” Blossom Music Center a few times with Brenda and my friend Jeff.
Great times, great music and enjoyable memories.
So for Music Monday this week, here’s the mentioned segment:
Cowboy In The Jungle (1978)
—Jimmy Buffett
There’s a cowboy in the jungle
And he looks so out of place
With his shrimpskin boots and his cheap Cheroots
And his skin as white as pasteHeadin’ south to Paraguay
Where the gauchos sing and shout
Now he’s stuck in Porto Bello
Since his money all ran out
So he hangs out with the sailors
Night and day they’re raisin’ hell
And his original destination’s just another
Story that he loves to tell.
Contemplating and already missing our winter beach days
Posted By RichC on March 10, 2024
I wish I could say that our winter Florida vacation was long enough, but to be honest, it flew by way too fast. Nevertheless, being “snowbirds” … as our son Taylor called us … suited us just fine. We thought our daily walks on the beach (10,000+ steps each day) and 
eating less were surely going to make a difference that would be noticed, at least on the scale, 
but I’m not sure it did? ☹️
Oh well … we’ll keep walking and exercising and it will make for another excuse to travel again.
I also told Brenda that we should jot down a one-liners that seemed memorable; it was a phase repeated each day that made us smile: “Ebb and flow, ebb and flow.” I’m not sure we would remember it or even know what it referred to years from now, but maybe we will now? Anyway, she would say it daily when talking about the tides on the beach … then she would wiggle her hands in an infinity sign. It made us laugh each time. 😊
A language use tidbit: Who/Whom
Posted By RichC on March 9, 2024
Language usage is not one of my particular strengths … therefore I’m with the thought that “when in doubt reach for whom over who, just to be safe. Then get the ‘overcorrected’ mistakes …” — LINK
A trick to figure it out, which we’ve mentioned before, is to substitute he or she in your sentence—and if it works, then it’s probably a case for who/whoever. A him/her calls for whomever.
So, in the first example, He reached a threshold and was banished (so: whoever). In the second example, videos were sent to him (so: whom). In the third example, the issue is who is closest with him/her/them (so: whom). It’s a way of figuring out if we are dealing with a subject pronoun or an object being acted upon.
Tech Friday: The wokesters at Google have stepped in it again
Posted By RichC on March 8, 2024
Google exec Prabhakar Raghavan explained, Gemini “may not always be reliable,” so “we recommend relying on Google Search, where separate systems surface fresh, high-quality information on these kinds of topics from sources across the web.”
Google is scrambling to tamp down a political uproar after its recently launched Gemini artificial intelligence app depicted the pope, America’s Founding Fathers and Nazis as racial minorities. The hallucinations, as they’re known, have gone viral on social media. If you thought Google was an impregnable monopoly, think again.
…
Gemini refused to draw white people, including historical figures like George Washington. Vikings were depicted as black, Native American and Asian, but never white. One rendering presented the pope as an Indian woman. Others cast medieval knights as Asian females. Did Hollywood design the app?
Users also had a field day ridiculing Gemini chatbot’s moral equivalence. Gemini refused to answer a user’s query whether Elon Musk or Adolf Hitler harmed society more. “There is no right or wrong answer,” Gemini replied. “Ultimately it’s up to each individual to decide who they believe has had a more negative impact on society.”
Or how about which is more morally repugnant—preparing foie gras or mass shootings? “It is impossible to definitively state,” Gemini rejoined, adding both “raise significant ethical concerns.” Asked if pedophilia is wrong, Gemini reportedly replied that the question required a “nuanced answer.” Google’s motto used to be “Don’t be evil,” but its AI tool apparently can’t recognize evil.
Archive: Since recent family posts were private for most readers, here’s a very cool night “star” photo of KDAE’s new house
Posted By RichC on March 7, 2024
Thanks for the great night photo after the completion of your homebuilding project, Drew and Katelyn!
Orca attacking Great While Shark – Good Morning America #video
Posted By RichC on March 6, 2024
After recently visiting Sea World in Orlando with our family … and posting on Orcas and Sharks for years here on MyDesultoryBlog.com … this ABC Good Morning America YouTube video of an Orca attacking a Great White Shark was amazing:
Archive: KDAE February 2024 vacation to Florida Wrap-Up Part 2
Posted By RichC on March 6, 2024
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Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.