Combs Spouts Off

"It's my opinion and it's very true."

  • Calendar

    January 2017
    S M T W T F S
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    293031  

  • Recent Posts

  • Tag Cloud

    al qaeda barbarism big government blogging colorado congress corruption culture democrats denver economics economy elections environmentalism firearms freedom global warming gop gun control guns health care human rights humor iraq islam islamofascism israel journalism leftists liberty media bias military moonbats msm music obama politics presidential candidates republicans socialism soldiers spending terrorism war weather

  • Archives

Archive for January, 2017

Why Trump won, reason #673

Posted by Richard on January 20, 2017

There are many reasons why Trump won the election. Not the least among them is the mindset of the Washington establishment exemplified by MarketWatch editor Rex Nutting in the condescending opinion piece Welcome to Washington, Trump supporters (emphasis added):

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — I’m seeing a lot of Trump supporters on the streets of the District today, and as a 25-year resident of this great city, I say “Welcome! Stay awhile!”

Today is your big day to celebrate the election of the man who heard your voice and amplified it. It must feel great to be heard.

You won’t meet many Washingtonians around the Capitol, on the parade route up Pennsylvania Avenue, or on the Mall today. Most of us are staying away from downtown out of respect, and maybe a little anxiety about what is to become of our beloved nation.

After the ceremony and the parade, I hope you’ll wander around the city for a while. You may think that Washington doesn’t understand you and your problems, but I wonder if you understand us, the people of this metro area. There’s more to us than a swamp.

In the spirit of the day, get out of your bubble and get to know us, because we are America too.

To Nutting and his ilk, it’s those of us who live in flyover country who are living in a bubble. We need to meet the residents of the District of Columbia and visit its monuments to the “anti-Trump” political leaders of the past in order to get to know the real America.

SMDH.

UPDATE: Some visitors from flyover country are being removed from their bubble and introduced to D.C. residents whether they like it or not:

Celeste Sollars, who said she and her husband came to town from Kansas to see the inauguration, said they were spit on and her husband was put in a chokehold by protesters.

“The cops wouldn’t do anything,” she said, crying. “This is not how it was supposed to be — assault is not a First Amendment right.”

So today the heartland ignoramuses visiting Washington are learning that the real America outside their 3000-county “bubble” is all about vandalizing property, burning cars, and assaulting people who think differently.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

A familiar refrain

Posted by Richard on January 5, 2017

Regarding the “mentally disabled” young man who was held captive, tortured, and beaten for 24-48 hours in Chicago, with some of the torture streamed live on Facebook, there’s this news:

CHICAGO — Chicago police don’t believe a man beaten in an assault broadcast live on Facebook was targeted because he was white despite profanities made by the accused assailants about white people and President-elect Donald Trump, a police spokesman said Thursday.

Charges are expected later in the day against four black suspects, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Associated Press.

Repeatedly shouting “F*ck white people! F*ck Trump!” isn’t evidence of racial motivation, according to authorities.

I’m reminded of all the times that authorities have assured us that shouting “Allahu Akbar!” isn’t evidence of radical Islamist motivation.

And the establishment wonders why a large portion of the population views them with contempt.

UPDATE: Chicago PD has decided this was a hate crime after all. Under Illinois law, targeting someone because of either their race or their disability is a hate crime, so it’s not clear which they’re applying in this case. Note, however, that the video doesn’t record any of the perps shouting “F*ck retards!”

UPDATE 2: I should note that I’m not in favor of hate crime laws, especially not those that only apply to crimes against certain “protected classes” while ignoring hatred based on, for instance, nationality or profession. The depravity of these acts alone should be sufficient to warrant long prison sentences. That said, I think the motivation of the perps should be explored and discussed, and I think it’s fair to invoke it as an aggravating factor leading to a longer sentence; a perpetrator of violence motivated by hatred of a whole segment of society is more of a danger to the public than one motivated by a beef with a specific individual.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The problem with DNA today

Posted by Richard on January 4, 2017

The next time you hear that the police have DNA evidence connecting someone to a crime, remember Michelle Malkin’s latest column, Forensic Nightmare: The Perils of Touch DNA.

The problem with DNA today is that we’ve become too good at finding it. It’s now possible to detect and analyze incredibly small samples of “touch DNA” — the epithelial cells that our skin sheds all the time everywhere we go. And those cells can then get transferred to who knows whom or where. Six degrees of separation, anyone?

You go to an office to drop off a job application and shake hands with the manager. She meets her husband for lunch, and they hug. Later that day, as he’s making the night deposit from his business, someone assaults him from behind and steals the money. Guess what? The police find your DNA on the back of his jacket. His assailant wore a mask, and the only description he can give is a white guy of average height and medium build wearing dark clothes. Hey, that’s you, isn’t it?

The problem is analogous to the problem caused by our ability to measure smaller and smaller concentrations of contaminants or pollutants. First it was parts per million, then parts per billion, and now we’re measuring parts per trillion. We’re approaching the point where we can detect almost anything almost anywhere. “The lake contains organophosphates!” “Detectable levels of arsenic were found on the playground!”

While there are some substances (like lead, which accumulates in the body) for which it’s fair to say that there really aren’t any safe levels, for almost everything else Paracelcus’ adage that the dose makes the poison is true. But people don’t know or tend to forget that (which radical environmentalists exploit all the time).

Just as tiny bits of your DNA can end up in many places, so can tiny bits of a farmer’s glyphosphate (Roundup). While both facts are interesting, they shouldn’t be assumed to prove that you, or the farmer, or Monsanto are guilty of anything or have harmed anyone. They merely demonstrate how good we’ve gotten at detecting stuff in very small quantities.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Gary Kubiak’s retirement speech

Posted by Richard on January 3, 2017

For health reasons, Gary Kubiak has stepped down as coach of the Denver Broncos. If you’re at all interested in the Broncos, or in football, or just in how a man of great character handles the difficult task of announcing that he’s walking away from his dream job, you might want to watch his retirement press conference.


[YouTube link]

Sports reporter Mike Klis:

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Skenazy: worst free-range moments of 2016

Posted by Richard on January 2, 2017

Lenore Skenazy is the author of Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry), which started a national movement against helicopter parenting and bubble-wrap child rearing. I wish every parent in America would read that book and regularly visit her website. The smothering, over-protective, “all risk must be eliminated” style of parenting that she forcefully and persuasively rejects is, IMHO, the reason we have college students today who need counseling and “safe spaces” after encountering “Trump 2016” written in chalk on the sidewalk.

Shortly before Christmas, Skenazy posted her top 11 worst free-range moments of the year. Her number one is my favorite (i.e., most headdesk-inducing one):

The police chief of New Albany, Ohio, helpfully revealed the age that kids are old enough to start going outside on their own: 16. “I think that’s the threshold where you see children getting a little bit more freedom.”

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Happy New Year 2017!

Posted by Richard on January 1, 2017

fireworks

Happy New Year! I can’t believe that at my advanced age I’ve made it past midnight. I owe it all to immoderate quantities of The Glenlivet and several wonderful interactions on my porch with the feral cat I’ve been befriending, whom I’ve named Bibi (and who now comes when I call her name).

Five months ago, Bibi wouldn’t let me get within 8 or 10 feet of her. Tonight, as I crouched down to give her a treat, she hopped up on my leg. Later, as I sat on the porch step sipping Glenlivet, she almost climbed into my lap to get a sniff of it. She rubbed up against my legs and the back of my hands on several occasions. I think we’ve made remarkable progress in our relationship, and it portends a wonderful 2017.

I hope you too have reason to believe that things got better during 2016 (hey, at least we avoided letting the Clinton crime family have another shot at the White House). And I hope that 2017 promises to be even better for you, as it does for me.

Subscribe To Site:

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »