lexicography.com

Been away for a few days.

Actually I went to France, and I wondered about the demographic change chronicled by Steyn and others. In Central Paris, on the streets, in the metro, everything looks exactly like 1985. There were more ha jib in the cafe’s of Munich. Hard to imagine that nearly thirty percent of the French population under eighteen is not ethnic French. You see nothing of poverty or immigration. Neither exists for the Parisian or the casual tourist.

In Paris sparkling water at a cafe costs nearly $5, so I am not surprised that you do not see the unemployed or the “on the dole” wandering the streets. But the unemployed and the “on the dole” do exist.

In Paris they live in a bubble, far removed from the reality of their country. Thirty, forty and fifty year old people go about their enjoyable lives while five, nine and twelve year olds, invisible to them, prepare to claim the republic.

ABNORMAL, adj.

Not conforming to standard. In matters of thought and conduct, to be independent is to be abnormal, to be abnormal is to be detested. Wherefore the lexicographer adviseth a striving toward the straiter [sic] resemblance of the Average Man than he hath to himself. Whoso attaineth thereto shall have peace, the prospect of death and the hope of Hell.

Is there a more distorted and tactical use of language than the present day use of the term “public service”?

The people that we call public servants are generally people who have power over you and are paid by forced extraction of tax dollars from the public at large at threat of imprisonment.

The true public servants are the capitalists, the businesspeople, who for the free exchange of money from any member of the public, without regard to status or connection, will apply their abilities and the things in their command to achieve the goals that you set. In a master servant relationship the master should set the objective and the goal and the servant should help the master achieve the goal that he set. Public servants are more correctly termed “Unaccountable Masters of the Public”.

That is why I still have some level of respect for lawyers. If you hire a lawyer, you set the objective. You may say “I want the maximum freedom possible to light up a cigar during every moment of my life”. The lawyer will research, argue, threaten, and work hard so you can light up everywhere. Visiting your wife in the emergency room of the hospital? Perhaps there is an exception to the no-smoking rules that applies to indigenous Americans for religious purposes and you are probably 1/112 American Indian. The lawyer won’t tell you - I know better for you. He is an advocate of your position as you define it.

Go to your doctor and say that you enjoyed the painkillers he prescribed and could you please have some more and you will get a lecture (and maybe a turncoat referral to a public authority “for your own good”).

You are not a public servant when you are ordering members of the public around. Period.

UPDATE: I have some corollaries. Anyone who claims that what you want for yourself is not legit and must be overwritten by what they want for you is your enemy. Anyone who refuses your desires for your higher good is your enemy. People should learn these things - they are the most obvious games for others to forward their interests at your and your family’s expense.

I’ve been looking for a car to buy for a while. I tend to keep cars for a long time because, first, I am very frugal, and second, since I started my own business I am always behind in work and do not have time for things like shopping or buying. Even vacations send me into horrors and I truly value vacation time with family. Replacing a working car is low on my list.

Still, if you read here once in awhile, you know that cars are my one indulgence, my weakness, my passion.

I got fed up with my six year old car, which was not too much fun on day one, About six months ago I dragged it to a Chevy dealer and test drove a Corvette. Very nice car, plastered a smile on my face. The transmission and interior were not up to the level of the overall car. I could not warm up to it.

I tried a stock Porsche but it was not fast enough. More speed and more of anything in Porsche land increases the bottom line ten grand per wish. Anyway the engine is behind the rear axle and I don’t like.

Now I have type 1 diabetes and have had it for a few years. Things are harder, no amount of effort banishes all low blood sugars (where one is confused and in danger of coma) or high blood sugars (where long term damage to the nerves and various organs is done). I recently detected that my capabilities are diminishing. This is not good news.

I was complaining to my wife about the lacking of the Corvette and the cost of the Porsche and she blurted out, ” This is the last car you are going to buy, get the Porsche if you want it.”

Talk about honest. But what a gem. Get what you want.

I thought about that license and decided that what I wanted was a Ferrari F430 Spider. Its my Last Car, after all.

A Ferrari production car run is about 5 years and every F430 for the next five years is sold. I can buy from a flipper, list price may be $202 thousand, for me $360 thousand.

Still the dream would not die. As a teenager I dreamed of the Ferrari I would once own. Now perhaps as a last purchase I could buy an old used one.

360 Modena was the model before the F430. Prices have not gone down but it is possible to buy one. Today I went to a dealer and test drove one.

The three things I wanted from the Ferrari were (1) superb car that could do more than I asked of it, (2) attention, and (3) not to hurt me too much (financially).

Here’s the report.

The cars look very nice. Most had so few miles on them I suspected that the original owners were afraid to drive, ever. The air conditioning is not very powerful.

Alright, the salesman got some plates on it and drove out onto the service road. He pointed out how the F1 transmission shifters worked. He explained how expensive upkeep really is. Then he did what any super car salesman has to do. He took it up through the gears from about 30 MPH in moderate traffic to about 100 MPH using all three lanes in the process. It did not take ten seconds. There are a couple sensations. The engine goes from “vroom vroom” to banshee, quite unique. The engine is about 12 inches behind your shoulder and it is hard to describe the sound but I imagine it could be addictive to a motor head like me. Other cars seem to slow, power or torque comes on at different places. You know you are going fast, then you feel a strong sensation of weight, being pushed back in the seat, passes quickly. Now you are going seriously fast. Looked at the gear indicator. Three. Speedometer. One hundred. I’m not a big fan of speeding or doing anything dangerous, but the excellence of it. Many car advertisements claim such a special experience and performance. They all look like a lot of hype. Here’s the real thing.

My turn.

I’m not going to get in a strange car on a strange road and try to make it do things at the limit of my abilities. I drove with up most probity. A little gas here, the engine does not pack a wallop at lower revs but does accelerate better than many turbo’s I’ve owned, a little power through a turn here, surprisingly no go-kart feel to the steering. Here I am at a stop light. Next to me is a kid in a BMW M3. Unmistakeably, he wants to race. I’ve driven this car 0.4 miles and I am invited to my first street race. Maybe the dealer has the kid on a retainer. Light changes, zoom off he goes. I turn to the salesman, “I guess I would get a lot of that”.

It is not about going fast, it is about the ability to go fast.

Can things get better? or can they not? People have voted against liberals/progressives/Democrats for a few elections now. Both houses of Congress, most state houses, the Presidency, are all in the hands of ainti-liberals and non-Progressives.

However, it seems to me that things are getting more Progressive. Federal tax revenues exceed projections yet there is no movement to return one iota to me. NJ is increasing the slice it takes, not just more money but a bigger share of whatever money is made in NJ.

In honesty, spending and government promises determine the cost of government, not the tax rates. Spending increases unabated both in absolute terms and as a share of the overall economy.

Institutional features seem to require that whatever we want, we get a little more government each year - in terms of direct monetary appropriation and spending and in terms of regulation and legal directions. Five years ago Microsoft probably designed and tried to produce products. Today Microsoft probably had a dozen co,compliancy offices and tries to satisfy the Euro rulers, the US courts, the agitating politicians, &etc.

So the question for me is “can”. If it were given that we desired, could anyheing be done to effectuate? I can’t believe that we are in this bind, not of our making.

ABILITY, n.
The natural equipment to accomplish some small part of the meaner ambitions distinguishing able men from dead ones. In the last analysis ability is commonly found to consist mainly in a high degree of solemnity. Perhaps, however, this impressive quality is rightly appraised; it is no easy task to be solemn.