Today's Bizarre News

With the Labor Day holiday, much of the crazy news seems to have taken the day off.  As a result we have to go overseas to find the bizarre news item of the day.  Here's my candidate:

Yesterday, Hezbollah launched anti-tank missiles at an Israeli base along the border with Lebanon.  When the attack happened, Israeli flew medical helicopters into the base that was hit and evacuated soldiers.  Smoke was seen rising from the site of the missile strike.  Hezbollah announced that it had hit an Israeli truck and killed and wounded soldiers.  Today, it turns out that no one was killed, no one was wounded, no vehicles were hit.  The whole thing was a sham staged by Israel after the attack with smoke grenades and mock evacuations.  It was done to fool Hezbollah into ending the attack.  And it worked.  Hezbollah made a claim to causing casualties that really hadn't happened and destroying equipment that hadn't been touched.  As a result, Hezbollah looks foolish.

But here's the question.  If the strategy of phony casualties and damage worked to stop the attack by hezbollah, why are the Israelis now admitting to it?  Wouldn't they want to repeat the ploy again?

The "Experts" and their Expertise

Years ago, I used to hear an expert who reported each day why the stock market went up or down that day.  The funny thing was that at 9:20 (just before the market opened) he rarely had an opinion as to what the market would do that day.  At 4:;20 (shortly after the market had closed), he always knew exactly why the day's trading had gone the way it did.  It was rather funny to hear this fool tell us day after day that he knew the complete reason for the day's trading.  After all, if he really could tell the reason for the trading, he could have invested each day and retired after making his first few billions.  Obviously, he didn't have a clue what had happened on most days.

Today, there are a myriad of "experts" who tell us why things have happened or what is about to happen.  It's not just those interested in investing in the stock market.  If you turn on the cable news channels, there's always a bunch of self-proclaimed "experts" who "know" what is about to happen.  And no matter how wrong they get things, these "experts" continue to issue their profound insights into the future.

A good example is China and North Korea "expert" Gordon Change.  In 2001 or 2002, he wrote a lengthy book in which he described the coming economic collapse of China.  That collapse, he told us, was "imminent".  Now, seventeen years later, Chang is still making appearances on many news programs to give us his predictions for China, North Korea or Japan.  The fact that China never collapsed doesn't matter; Chang is still presented as an expert.  Sometimes, the news people questioning him even introduce him as the author of the book in which he predicted the collapse.

Think of all those "experts" who told us that Trump couldn't win in 2016 or that Hillary had the election locked up.  They're nearly all still on the air.  Then there are the "experts" who told us that the election of Trump would cause a depression or a severe recession.  They weren't even close to being correct, but they're still on the air.

What's the point of all these so called experts making their predictions?  Couldn't we all just buy one of those magic 8 balls and let it tell us something like "not likely" when asked a question?

It's not just politics and finance where this phenomenon exists.  Look at a dry science like Demography.  The UN employs a huge administrative staff  to make population projections.  In 1960, for example, these experts pojected the world's population for 2020.  Now that we're actually just about at 2020, it's pretty clear that these experts were off by more than 2 billion people.  That's like being off by 25%.  The UN experts labored for months to develop these projections which were ridiculously wrong.

And how about the global warming "experts" who told us that the world was doomed by 2010?  Need I say more?

So Much For Background Checks

One big push by the gun control lobby in recent years has been for "universal background checks".  It sounds good.  After all, why shouldn't people who want to buy guns get checked out?  But there's a big problem:  it doesn't work.  The shooter who just shot up Odessa and Midland Texas had weapons.  He also had FAILED a background check when he tried to legally purchase weapons not long ago.  We don't yet have information on why he failed the check, but the point is that he did fail.  Despite that, he still ended up with weapons enough to kill many people and wound many more.

We probably won't hear too much more about the shooter in the short term.  It turns out that like the shooter in Dayton, Ohio, this guy was a far left Democrat.  The media tends to gloss over those people once their politics are disclosed.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not against reasonable gun controls.  I just want something that works to reduce gun violence.  I'm not in favor of virtue signalling.  Laws that let some people talk about how wonderful they are to have done something are a waste of time if they don't work.  Universal background checks are just not the answer.

The Feminist Message???

In today's installment of "propaganda as news" the New York Trims is lamenting the end of Kirsten Gillibrand's presidential campaign. According to the Times, the senator had a strong "feminist" message.  Are they kidding?

The only thing "feminist" about the Gillibrand campaign was that the senator is a woman.  That can't be enough for a feminist meassage.  It is true that Gillibrand supported abortion until moments before birth and even, in certain cases, after birth.  That's hardly feminist; more than anything it's just racist since African Americans get abortions in the USA at a rate more than five times that of white people.  The abortion industry functions, more than anything, as a way that society can keep the numbers of African Americans down.  Again, that's not feminist.  It's more Social Darwinism and fascist than anything.

Just Messing Around -- But Still A Mess

It's really rather funny.  For years, Will and Grace was on TV preaching inclusion and respect for other lifestyles.  The woman who plays Grace, Debra Messing, constantly spoke about this in every interview she gave.  Her life was one big virtue signaling.  When the show was brought back for a few additional seasons, it wasn't very funny, but the preaching continued.

Now, Messing is busy proving herself a hypocrite.  There's going to be a fund raiser in Los Angeles for people in TV and movies in support of President Trump.  Messing has publicly called for those who attend to be identified so that they can be ostracized for their views.  Somehow, the preaching of respect for everyone disappears if Trump is involved.  Somehow the virtue signalling ends if Messing doesn't agree with your views.

Sixty years ago, there were blacklists in Hollywood against actors, directors and others who had ties to the Communist party.  It's now gospel in Hollywood that such a move is outrageous and improper.  Of course, that is exactly what Messing is proposing.  Hopefully, the entertainment industry will blacklist Messing and her fascist tactics.  It won't happen, but it's nice to think about.

Here It Comes

Hezbollah forces fired antt-tank missiles at an Israeli base just south of the Lebanese border about an hour ago.  The missiles were fired from Lebanese territory.  The Israelis apparently knew that some sort of attack was coming.  Their defense forces had set up large concrete roadblocks in the area to stop any vehicles from using roads to get further south should they cross the border.  Hezbollah claims that it blew up a truck with the missiles.  Israeli forces are returning fire at the Hezbollah positions.

Even if a truck was destroyed, this is not a big deal for what happened.  Rather, the question is what will happen next.  The Israelis will surely respond and this could just mean more and more fighting.  To that end, it's worth noting that Israel instructed all towns within 2.5 miles of the border to open their bomb shelters for residents.  That's never a good sign of what's coming next.

It has been quite a while since Hezbollah and Israel confronted each other directly over the Lebanese border.  Let's hope that things quiet down, but that doesn't seem too likely at the moment.

Unhappy Anniversary

World War II began 80 years ago today.  It started with the Germans invading Poland from the west followed by a declaration of war by the UK and France and then a Soviet invasion of Poland from the east.  By the time it ended, the war claimed huge numbers of people and included the most massive genocide of all time.  It led to the Cold War which went on for another 45 years.

Things have truly changed since then.  During World War II, the USA lost almost 600,000 soldiers killed in action with more wounded.  That's something like 140,000 for each year of the war.  We've been in Afghanistan for 18 years and have lost about 2500 soldiers during that time.  There were days during World War II when American forces lost more soldiers than that. 

I don't mean to make light of the losses in Afghanistan.  I only am attempting to demonstrate the difference between the two wars.

What made World War II different is that it was the first time in a modern conflict that war was waged against the civilian populations rather than being confined to the battlefield.  Germany was leveled.  London and the UK got hit with the blitz.  The Soviet Union lost about 20 million people through the war with many dying from starvation.  Jews across Europe were rounded up and killed.  In China and Japan millions died from bombing and disease.

As WWII gets consigned to history rather than the active memory of those who lived through it, the concept of war is changing again.  Terrorism is rampant, and that is nothing but the making of war on innocent civilians.  Wars of extermination are again reappearing.  Just listen to the rhetoric of Iran or Hezbollah directed towards Israel; they don't want just to win, but rather to destroy the Israeli people.

It would be nice to think that people were permanently changed by WWII, but it doesn't seem to have worked out that way.