Bits and Pieces

I’m regaining some mobility after last weekend’s no fun hospital time but I’m still without a good, distracting book. You know what this means don’t you? Yes, I’ve been reading the news and jumping down too many rabbit holes.

Fer instance, did you know that, “when the settlers came to the new world they found very widespread child sacrifice.” This is according to Yale Law’s most embarrassing grad, VP J.D. Vance (or whatever name he’s going by this week). He said that ending the practice (amongst Indigenous peoples) was “one of the great accomplishments of Christian civilization.”

First, child sacrifice was NOT a widespread practice throughout his mislabeled “new world.” (thank you, the Americas had been around, occupied, and civilized just as long as Europe – nothing “new” about it, you dumb shit.)

Second:

The Spanish Christians may have ended the practice among the Aztec and the Mayans, but they did so with a genocidal brutality that far exceeded even the most egregious Christian concoctions of indigenous human sacrifice.

The murder, enslavement and cultural destruction of indigenous peoples committed by Christian colonizers worldwide must rank as one of the most brutal crimes against humanity in all of history.

Today’s Christian apologists spend an inordinate amount of time covering up the historical facts of their brutality, while simultaneously extolling the virtues of Christian culture through fabrications of their role in history. (source) 

Ending the practice by killing or enslaving everyone isn’t exactly a “great accomplishment” in my book but maybe Yale Law has different, MUCH lower, standards than me. 

I know this is small and really off topic BUT, our sleepy racist pedo Prez's recent tantrum about and threats to the Somali people of Minnesota made me think – my god, I’ve never had Somali food and I’ve heard it’s awesome! Closest Somali joint I can find is in my old neighborhood, near the MIT campus in East Cambridge. Tawakal Halal is too far for takeout but, when I’m healthier, I’d be up for a dine-in.

Somehow, this brought me down the path to cuisine from Ghana, which I’ve also never tried. There’s a restaurant closeby called RedRed Kitchen. Looks AMAZING.

I feel quite sure that future historians will refer to our current period in history as the Dunning-Kruger Era.

Dunning-Kruger Effect
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This tends to occur because a lack of self-awareness prevents them from accurately assessing their own skills. (source) 

Cornell University psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger wrote that “Those with limited knowledge in a domain suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach mistaken conclusions and make regrettable errors, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.” This clearly describes the entire current administration and every single idiot who voted for it.

So, if you survive, you can tell your great grandchildren horror stories from the Dunning-Kruger years. 

Or maybe, instead of calling this the Trump Administration, it will be referred to in history books as the Dunning-Kruger Administration? Possibly with an asterisk to a one word footnote – Trump.

According to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a nonpartisan public policy research arm of the State University of New York (SUNY), only 55% of the vile monsters who do mass shootings/murders (outside of Pete Kegseth ordered hits) are white men (okay, I guess that would also include ol’ Plastered Pete too). The kill rate per capita for white guys is, shockingly, negligibly higher than in males of other races. Honestly, I’m stunned.

Gun happy mass killers can be of any age but they tend to fall into two clusters. School shooters are usually between 16 and 25 years of age. Those targeting other venues tend to be slightly older – the average falls in the mid-30s. 

Peak massacre time seems to be late morning. I guess this allows for a nice lie-in, a leisurely breakfast, a little Call of Duty, maybe a shower, and then they dash out the door to kill a bunch of humans. If they play it right, they can be home in time to have mom make a sammie or two before she goes to her book club or where ever the fuck she goes. Unless of course he's slayed her earlier on his way out the door.

Thursdays, closely followed by Mondays seem to be the most popular for mass murder. Really, any weekday is good. Killers seem to lay low on the weekend though. I get it. NO ONE wants to work on the weekend.

So, there ya go…that’s all my bits and pieces for today. You’re welcome…and shit.