Woke Terror

I recently heard a new phrase that stuck in my head like a dart in a dart board - Woke Terror.

In our world a formerly innocent remark, a badly remembered joke, or affinity with out-of-favor politics can bring down on you a torrent of public shaming. I don't have the details handy but a couple of years ago one of the founders of Netscape was hounded into early retirement for the crime of having contributed to a pro-life group.

Since today's political correctness is called being woke, then I dub the fear of sudden ridicule, shaming, and shunning for the expression of an opinion Woke Terror.

And, by the way, this was a classic Nazi and Stalinist tactic to maintain public obedience to the higher order.

Facts are Interesting Things

Facts are interesting things. Here is a chart of physical attacks or intimidation on Jewish people in Europe and those who commit them.

Here's a link to the original research from the University of Oslo if you wan to take a closer look.

Are You Tired of Winning Yet?

I don't have the numbers to back this up but I've heard that the United States is now outproducing Saudi Arabia and Russia in oil and gas. Well, now drillers have found another big deposit. Are you tired of winning yet?

Men Never Ask for Directions

So, where are we on this chart?

As of this writing, the US stock markets are undergoing a correction (-10.3% off their recent high). If you're a fan of the markets, I'd like to ask this question. Look at this chart and answer this question: Are we in the Bull Trap over have we gone through Despair and are at Return to the Mean?

My answer is, "I don't know". I think markets are peaking when un-involved people in my orbit start talking about them and I'll use 2006-2007 real estate markets as an example. Many people were talking about flipping houses as a sure-fire way to riches. Oops.

So, again, where are we?

Oops!

Here's a fact that is new to me: wind farms have a useful life span of 20 years (more or less). The picture is of a wind farm being decommissioned in Wisconsin. Other energy sources have longer life spans like 50 years for a natural gas power plant or 60 years for a nuclear plant.

You didn't ask but I have a background in finance and capital allocation for corporations. The accounting rules say an asset is depreciated over it's useful life like 20, 50, or 60 years. The monthly depreciated cost is the division of the item's cost by the useful life. So what? Power sources should be depreciated over their useful life. U.S. government practice seems to be to depreciate them all at 30 years and this makes wind look cheaper than it really is and gas and nuclear more expensive.

Check out this article at PowerLine for details. It has a link for even more information.

Are They Kissing Cousins?

I say yes.

Bradley J. Berzer at The American Conservative has some interesting background of the compare and contrast variety on Nazi-ism, Fascism, and Communism. He agrees with me (I was there first!) that Fascism and Communism are two sides of the same coin although he uses the term Kissing Cousins.

Nazi-ism focused on the national (National Socialist) while Communism focused on the international (Comintern). Both were virulently anti-Capitalist. There are many, many other examples but for the moment I'll stick with the Soviet-Nazi nonaggression pact that led to the willful co-invasion of Poland in 1939.

Take a look here for a pretty good synopsis.

Let's Be Classy

Here's an interesting article at The American Thinker about classism and modern feminism.

The author, Katie El-Diwany, asks an interesting question. When I hear women speak of wanting to succeed they are talking about professions like engineering, medicine, or law. Why do I not hear them speak of being the world's best plumber or electrician? I'm just asking.