In the essay The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity, Italian economic historian Carlo M. Cipolla wrote:
“It is my firm conviction, supported by years of observation and experimentation, that men are not equal, that some are stupid and others are not, and that the difference is determined by nature and not by cultural forces or factors. One is stupid in the same way one is red-haired; one belongs to the stupid set as one belongs to a blood group. A stupid man is born a stupid man by an act of Providence.”
Here’s a short video overview, set to music, of the Five Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Israel is rubber, Hamas is glue.
Confessions of a Racist.
Recommended: James Kalb’s “The Irony of ’60s ‘Liberation’: The Age of Aquarius Ushers in a Ruling Class of ‘Experts.'”
Excerpt:
The whole thing here.
h/t
No tip. Just a question. Do the striking NHL teams pay for their “non use” of the many tax payer funded arenas in the home cities where they’re contracted to be playing?
Black Mamba…. I’m committing Penny Arcade’s article to memory… I’d be racist if I saved the link.
This article is from about 10 days ago, but still worth the read. Rail companies are doing well due to crude oil being shipped by rail:
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/11/06/cn-rail-cp-rail-surging-with-crude-oil-moving-by-trains/
These complete *idiots* who want to ban every pipeline have no clue how the world works. If the oil cannot be piped, it will be shipped in other ways.
Thanks! I feel slightly stupider for having watched that.
“Five Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.”
I don’t know if this should be #A or #6F
“You can’t fix stupid!!!!!!!!”
BM…excellent find.And since I am White,and therefore racist,I AM bookmarking it!
The essay in the lead….in every law and examples he postulated,I found myself after #1 just automatically inserting leftie for stupid. Does this make me racist twice??
Rail companies are doing well due to crude oil being shipped by rail:
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/11/06/cn-rail-cp-rail-surging-with-crude-oil-moving-by-trains/
These complete *idiots* who want to ban every pipeline have no clue how the world works. If the oil cannot be piped, it will be shipped in other ways.
Alaska-bound rail project could solve Canada’s oil sands problems
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2012/11/16/alaska-bound-rail-project-could-solve-canadas-oil-sands-problems/
Diane Francis | Nov 16, 2012 6:54 PM ET
A group of Canadian businessmen has obtained the blessing of Alaskan tribes and Canadian First Nations to build a railroad through their lands that could carry up to five million barrels per day from the oil sands to the super tanker port in Valdez, Alaska.
Surely the widespread consumption of many varieties
of rec pharma isn’t helping to lower the stupidity index.
My own experience with the post puberty years also
seemed to indicated that elevated testosterone levels
were not helpful when trying to keep brain function
at the previous high level.
.
There is more on the G7G railway at the Alaska Dispatch. Also a there is a story on InterBering, which is a dream to build a tunnel under Bering Sea to Russia.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alberta-alaska-railway-will-it-be-built
I see from the wiki article that this is one of “two tongue-in-cheek essays on economics ” from the seventies.
I think I prefer the other —
‘The role of spices (and black pepper in particular) in Medieval Economic Development, traces the curious correlation between spice import and population expansion in the late Middle Ages, postulating a causation due to a supposed aphrodisiac effect of black pepper.”
Dizzy – or perhaps black pepper’s use as a preservative saved people from starvation or premature death due to food poisoning, thus leading to an increased population?
Well, as a personal experiential aside, I can certainly vouch for the first, second and fourth laws, and have learned in a hard school that the fifth is unquestionably and universally true.
But the dead ringers for the third law are those Canadians who wanted Obama re-elected. Have a look at:
http://www.canada.com/opinion/columnists/Back%2Bbusiness%2BCanada/7561907/story.html
I suggested a list the other day about the markers Canadians should look for in terms of assessing whether the Democrats or Republicans would have been better for Canada — in addition to the ones I mentioned, L. Ian MacDonald mentions the TPP, which I forgot about.
MacDonald, who’s assessment of Canadian politics I always read and who’s among the more balanced on Harper, IMO, outlines implicitly, but pretty clearly, why we need to stick with Steve over the long haul, as opposed to changing horses in favour of a sycophant with big hair — either on the head or on the face.
With regard to oil shipments, which are far safer and cheaper to carry by pipeline rather than by rail or truck, remember that Obama’s cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline benefitted…hmmm…his friend Warren Buffet.
Buffet is the King of US railway transportation. The Keystone Pipeline was expected to help move N Dakota oil, for example. Ah well, without it, the oil will have to be moved by Buffet’s trains:
So, “75 percent of the oil currently shipped by rail out of North Dakota is handled by Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC… which just happens to be a unit of Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. What a coincidence.”
Gosh, who would have known that decisions are made by political cronies (Buffet funds Obama).
“Our daily life is mostly, made of cases in which we lose money and/or time and/or energy and/or appetite, cheerfulness and good health because of the improbable action of some preposterous creature who has nothing to gain and indeed gains nothing from causing us embarrassment, difficulties or harm…There are however people who by their improbable actions not only cause damages to other people but in addition hurt themselves. They are a sort of super-stupid who…”
I smell a fraud. This guy claims to be Italian, but anybody who can describe Dildo McDinky and his supporters so accurately has obviously spent more time in Toronto than Taranto.
ET;
Not on top of how much oil BNSF is moving daily. CNR is already railing oil to the Gulf Coast and is building a storage and loading facility in SW Manitoba which will load 120 cars per day. That is approximately 50,000 bpd. The scale required to move significant volumes is mind boggling. Last I checked CNR runs 17 trains of +100 cars across Canada per day. To move 1 million barrels per day would take 20 trains of 100 cars.
Bakken fields are currently producing I believe 1.5 million bpd. The vast majority is by pipeline.
And here’s more on Who Changed the Benghazi Talking Points:
“Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the vice chair of the Senate intelligence committee, told “Fox News Sunday” that he tried to find out who changed the talking points:
“At the hearing we had on Thursday and Friday, we had every leader of the intelligence community there, including folks from the State Department, the FBI — everybody there was asked, ‘Do you know who made these changes?’ And nobody knew. The only entity that reviewed the talking points that was not there was the White House.
“So, you know, I don’t know whether — what they said yesterday is exactly right or not. But, what I do know is that every member of the intelligence community says that references to al Qaeda were removed by somebody, and they don’t know who. And references to attacks versus demonstrations were removed by somebody.”
That is, the only group who were not asked if they changed those talking points, was the White House. Now, the WH and Obama have said that all they did, heh, was change the term ‘consulate’ to ‘station’ since it wasn’t legally a consulate. But, the fact remains; the memo was changed.
And the fact remains, that Obama insisted during the infamous second debate that he knew, and stated publicly in the Rose Garden that it was a terrorist attack( he didn’t; he only referred generally to terrorism)but, if he knew, then why did he allow Rice to state on five different media shows, that it was a spontaneous demonstration?
The only people to benefit from the change, was the Obama election campaign.
Heard this rumour that yesterday Roy Green was interviewing Mark (the king of pot) Emery, and Mark was assuring listeners that he had no doubt that a certain liberal leadership hopeful would not only advocate for legalizing pot, it would be one of the first things that would happen if the liberal in question ever became PM.
The question in my mind, is when did this liberal ever become an advocate for smokers rights? I was always lead to believe smoking (no qualification of what kind of smoking) causes cancer.
Since Emery made this “revelation” the liberal in question has not responded.
Wonder why?
This is one for the ‘things you’ll never see on the CBC’ or allow me to post in their comments.
Percentage of Households, have TV sets,2011- 96.7
Percentage of Households, satellite dish in households with a TV set,2011- 93.9
Percentage of Households, with Own Computer,2011- 50.9
Doctors per 1000 population, 2010- 1.7 ( Canada-2.1,Mexico-1.5)
These are from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. I have been taking a look at the site every so often for a few years. However,it was always extremely difficult to navigate,but no more.It has been updated and is more user-friendly.
Palestine is the most prosperous open air prison/concentration camp/apartheid state in the history of the world.Now,if we can only get those damn Joos to let in a few more satellite dishes.
http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/site/881/default.aspx#HouseHold
This is from BCF.
It is a fine example of the disconnect that the cbc has from reality.
The ‘community blog’ has an article up and ,of course,accompanying tweets that show the obvious depravity of the IDF. The comment section is the only redeeming feature of the article,even they can see through the bias that is the cbc’s stock in trade.
FIRE.THEM.ALL.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/11/israeli-soldiers-shock-the-web-with-smiling-instagrams.html
TOTUS: botcher.
“Barack Obama: hardly off to a flying start”
…-
“Barack Obama blunders again on the world stage”
“t is only two weeks since his re-election, and his second term remains two months away, but Barack Obama is already blundering again on the world stage, with the kind of gaffes that would have been plastered on the front page of The New York Times if they had been committed by George W. Bush when he was in the White House. Obama’s first term was littered with foreign policy gaffes, and there is every chance the second term will be more of the same.
On his trip to Asia this week, President Obama struggled to pronounce the name of Aung San Suu Kyi,”.
“Obama also “botched” his greeting of Burma’s new president,”.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100190254/barack-obama-blunders-again-on-the-world-stage/
Joseph — Trudeau said he was open to the idea. Unfortunately, he did not consult with the party elders before making that statement. Even Rae backed off of this one. The idea comes from their youth wing.
Neo-AGW Progress Report.
“The earth is entering a cooling phase which is likely to last about 30 years and possibly longer.”
…-
“Cooling in the near future?
Posted on November 19, 2012 by Anthony Watts
Global Cooling – Climate and Weather Forecasting.
Guest post by Dr. Norman Page
Introduction.
Over the last 10 years or so as new data have accumulated the general trend and likely future course of climate change has become reasonably clear. The earth is entering a cooling phase which is likely to last about 30 years and possibly longer. The major natural factors controlling climate change have also become obvious.Unfortunately the general public has been bombarded by the scientific and media and political establishments with anthropogenic global warming – anti CO2 propaganda based on the misuse and misrepresentation of already shoddy IPCC “science” for political ,commercial and personal ends.
The IPCC climate science community largely abandoned empirical Baconian inductive scientific principles and built worthless climate models based on unfounded assumptions designed to show that anthropogenic CO2 was the driving force behind changing climate. Most of the IPCC output is useless as a tool for predicting future climate trends and their impacts and in particular the IPCC Summaries for Policymakers can be safely ignored for practical purposes. The divergence between the IPCC Hansen projections and the observed trends is shown below.”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/11/19/cooling-in-the-near-future/#more-74502
‘Nother landmark/milestone for our Conservative Prime Minister.
…-
“Loonie poised to join elite group of global reserve currencies”
““It’s a reflection of reality,” Bank of Montreal economist Benjamin Reitzes explained. “Central banks around the world have recognized that Canada is a place they want to hold some assets. They are already here.””
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/loonie-poised-to-join-elite-group-of-global-reserve-currencies/article5441362/
…-
“Argo loss to Calgary in ‘71 Grey Cup moved Harper to tears”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Choo-Choo Report.
Plus Feature: Fire P. Kent.
…-
“Pachauri miffed as IPCC is not invited to COP18
UPDATE: This email from IPCC at Revkin’s site seems to confirm that they are not officially invited but will be present anyway (at whose cost?) to provide a ”background briefing for media”! Just in case the media cannot get their stories right “when they come to write about AR5“!!
Pachauri and the IPCC have apparently not been invited to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP18/CMP8) which is to be held in Doha from November 26th to December 7th. Pachauri has been talking to the press in Doha and seems very aggrieved. His press interview seems like he is almost begging for an invitation. He’s already in Doha so maybe he could just gatecrash the event!!
It could just be a secretarial oversight or it could be an intentional snub by the UN for a discredited organisation or it could be the UN expressing its displeasure for the manner in which the IPCC preens itself and usurps the UN’s own perceived role. Or it could be that some of the key countries attending plan to question or reject the IPCC’s findings and just don’t want them around.
My guess is that some way will be found for Pachauri to save some face.”
http://ktwop.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/pachauri-miffed-as-ipcc-is-not-invited-to-cop18/
…-
“Hurricane Sandy another sign of danger of global warming, Peter Kent says”
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/national/Hurricane+Sandy+another+sign+danger+global+warming+Peter/7572645/story.html
O’hoy,O’halitOsis.
Re-write: O’idiO-’tis-haliTOTUS.
…-
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/11/19/1353332111074/Barack-Obama-and-Aung-San-003.jpg
Hope for Hostess ? … From who?
“Private equity firm Sun Capital Partners wants to buy bankrupt bakery Hostess Brands Inc., Fortune has learned.
The proposal would be to operate Hostess as a going concern, including reopening the shuttered factories and continuing union representation of Hostess workers.”
“Here’s the irony. The founder of Sun Capital Partners is the person who hosted the private fundraiser at which Mitt Romney made his infamous 47% statement, Host of Romney party dubbed ‘private equity party boy”
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/11/romney-47-party-host-may-rescue-thousands-of-union-jobs-at-hostess/
“Hamas said that it could not confirm that the four had been killed by the IDF, and said that they were “out of communication range.””
…-
Four More Top Terrorists Eliminated”
“IDF planes on Monday targeted and eliminated another four senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.”
“They were in a multi-storied apartment building, but were killed in a pinpointed “surgical” attack that did not hit any of the international media representatives whose offices are in the builidng.
That the loss of the four was significant to Gaza Arab terrorists was evident from the fact that Hamas denied that the IDF had eliminated the four. In a statement, Hamas said that it could not confirm that the four had been killed by the IDF, and said that they were “out of communication range.””
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/162258#.UKrdxoYQP_Y
All the millionaire farmers didn’t get rich being smart. They inherited what their grandfathers started. Don’t BS me.