Opuscula A very few words On “transgender”

IF A MAN has a vigina is he a man?

If a woman has a penis, is she a woman?

No matter what a man THINKS himself to be, until a he removes his penis and has a vigina surgically created, he still is a man.

The same applies to a woman; until she has her vigina replaced by a penis, she still is a woman.

A person who THINKS his or her body fails to match their mental image, that person is no more than a “transgender-in-progress” and should NOT be allowed to use facilities designated for the opposite sex.

THE LIBERALS CONTROLLING the U.S. government have set aside the majorities’ civil rights for those of a small minority – transgenders-in-progress.

I do not consider myself “sexist” or “racist” or any other “ist” Washington’s word twisters can coin. I am a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, but my social liberalism does not extend to the bathroom.

The only males that should be seen in a woman’s bathroom are very small boys who need help; likewise, the only girls in a man’s bathroom should be very small girls who need assistance. My 18 month-old grandsons fall into the first category; my grand-daughter, at age 6, does not (albeit when she is with me I stand outside the door of a public restroom until she comes out).

Granted, my grand-daughter knows how males are endowed thanks to her younger brothers and bath time. But she does NOT need to be subjected to seeing a “woman” with a penis.

If the government forces transgender bathrooms on the populace, it also should order that all transgender bathrooms be limited to one person at a time. Multi-person bathrooms should be for people of the sex indicated for the specific restroom.

If a person insists on changing his or her sex, fine. Let them, but to be accepted in the sex they want to be, they must have ALL the physical attributes of that sex. To my simple mind, a man can get hormone therapy to increase breast size to Triple D, have a Brazilian butt lift (whatever that is), and wear Dior dresses, but as long as he has a penis, he’s still a man and does not belong in a woman’s public restroom. Likewise a woman; no matter how “pumped” she is or how masculine she looks and acts, until she swaps her vigina for a functional penis, she’s still a female.

It seems to me that a transgender “woman” sans a vigina isn’t really a woman; she cannot enjoy the sexual things a woman-by-birth can enjoy; likewise for a transgender “man.”

In the case of transgenders, it is what is on the outside that counts.

Obama’s legacy Media reports that Obamacare’s canceled; Truth is the only victim

I HEARD ON THE TV “news” today that people need to hurry to sign up for Obamacare before the national health plan is eliminated.

Half truth.

Trump DOES plan to eliminate Obamacare, BUT he promises to replace it with a better program. He said that over and over again during the campaign, but the liberal media ignored the part where a replacement was promised.

Eyes that do not see; ears that do not hear.

The liberals — including the media — are up in arms because Trump wants to appoint a person with business ties to Russia and a proven cordial relationship with Russia’s leader, Putin.

Obama spent time antagonizing the Bear, a Bear with visions of regaining its stature as a world power.

According to the Nuclear Threat Institute:

International statesmen Des Browne, Wolfgang Ischinger, Igor Ivanov, and Sam Nunn call on Western and Russian leaders to reduce the risk of a dangerous military confrontation by adopting measures outlined in a new report by NTI. "During the past several years, we have been in a state of escalating tension, trapped in a downward spiral of antagonism and distrust. Unless Western and Russian leaders take immediate steps to improve transparency and enhance predictability, they may inadvertently risk a deadly confrontation," write the four leaders. The report, by NTI's Robert E. Berls, Jr. and Leon Ratz, is based on a survey of leading security experts from the United States, Russia, and Europe.

Meanwhile, NTI also reports that

"In 2016, North Korea's nuclear weapons program shifted in an important way, from developing a nuclear capability in the abstract to deploying a nuclear-armed force of ballistic missiles. A new 3D model of North Korea's nuclear test site suggests many more may be on the way. Jeffrey Lewis and Nathaniel Taylor explore the progress made by and implications of North Korea's nuclear program. The model includes a virtual reality walkthrough of the site!"

The U.S. – Israel relationship is just grand according to the White House web site,

Under President Obama’s leadership, American engagement with Israel has grown and strengthened to an unprecedented degree.

There are those who might disagree, including some U.S. media.

The Washington Times,

President Obama is determined to leave American relations with Israel, the nation’s only reliable ally in the Middle East, in ruins as part of his legacy. He doesn’t seem to understand that a president doesn’t design his legacy. Reality takes care of that, and the legacy he will leave is well established already.

Then there was — continues to be — the “Arab Spring.”

Under as Huffington Post headline reading Barack Obama Reminds GOP Critics He Didn’t Start The Arab Spring wrote that

President Barack Obama tackled a favored GOP criticism about his foreign policy Friday, rejecting Republican presidential candidates’ claims that he threatened American security by deliberately promoting regime change in the Middle East.

“We didn’t trigger the Arab Spring,” Obama said in a press conference, defending his policy in Egypt, Libya and Syria during the regional pro-democracy uprising that began in 2010.

However, the Foreign Policy.com site reports that in

a major speech on May 19, 2011, during the heady early months of the Arab Spring, the president argued that concentrating mainly on longstanding U.S. security interests was no longer enough. Obama declared that encouraging transitions to democracy was now a "top U.S. priority that must be translated into concrete actions and supported by all of the diplomatic, economic, and strategic tools at our disposal."

The Atlantic under the headline Islamism, the Arab Spring, and the Failure of America’s Do-Nothing Policy in the Middle East by Shadi Hamid, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, and a senior fellow at the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution's Center for Middle East Policy, details how America's often lack of action gave Islamists confidence to overthrow less radical governments.

It may take Trump more than four years to “Make America great again,” but at least — despite the liberals — some progress can be made in that direction.

Opuscula Definition of a Liberal: Eyes that do not see Ears that do not hear

THERE IS A FELLOW here in South Florida who writes editorials for a local paper of Jewish “interests.” That’s to say it carries articles that might be of interest to the general Jewish population and advertisements that are aimed at the non-observant.

Everyone, including this person, is entitled to a reasonable, well-thought out opinion. This person’s rant was about the Standing Rock Sioux ‘ stand against the pipeline slated to cross their land.

The writer, who claims the title “rabbi,” was doing OK in setting forth his opinion but then he proved his bona fides as a liberal who wouldn’t know reality if it bit him in the posterior.

He wrote:

The Standing Rock Sioux show us what it takes to fight back against the dark forces which will soon control Washington. (Emphasis mine)

Seems to me that those “dark forces” had nothing to do with the pipeline. It all transpired on the liberal Obama’s watch – Trump and his “dark forces” had nothing to do the pipeline.

Not only did the writer not get THAT correct, he did it with a sentence laden with grammatical errors. I admit to being a pedant when it comes to grammar.

The writer then goes on to show his lack of command of the language — English, anyway — by telling the reader that what is needed is ”a real miracle regarding oil, we need to conserve energy through conservation, and quickly develop alternative energy and drill no new pipelines.”

"Conserve" through "conservation"? "Drill no new pipelines"? I was unaware pipelines were drilled. Wells, yes, pipelines, no. Never mind; facts are immaterial to a liberal.

Excuse me, but Obama & Company had eight years — not just eight DAYS — to direct the county’s alternative resource development. He managed to sneak in a medical plan that has, for many, been a disaster, and he has issued fiats from on high — executive orders — that some challenge as borderline unConstitutional. But a workable energy plan? Hardly.

Further proving that the writer has “eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear,” he ignores the print, tv, and even radio advertisements from the power company that provides the electricity he needs to write his copy. Florida Power constantly brags about its use of alternative (to oil) fuels, including solar, natural gas, and — I’m sure this, too, is disagreeable to the writer — nuclear.

I wish I could write that Some of my best friends are liberal Democrats but that would be a lie. All my friends, many who hold positions other than mine, listen to all arguments and present their positions in a civilized manner. I do not count as “friends” people who refuse to even entertain a position other than their own. I know a few such people; they are “acquaintances,” not “friends.”

The writer then winds up his rant by abusing the Declaration of Independence by rewriting it to be a Declaration of fossil fuel independence . As an example of his authorship, his declaration opens with When in the course of human events … I can imagine the Founding Fathers spinning in their graves. But then, liberals of the writer’s ilk rarely are known for originality.

The writer finally ends his full-page tirade by inviting everyone to celebrate Hanukah the Friday evening BEFORE Hanukah, but well after Shabat has been ushered in, so that all people, especially Christians, should celebrate Hanukah. .

Eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear; the disease of liberals everywhere.

Opuscula Bye-bye JavaScript

JAVA AND JAVASCRIPT once were billed as the platform-independent answer to programming limitations.

I’m glad I didn’t try to learn it.

Slowly Java and JavaScript are being rejected by the browser makers.

I AM NOT A PROGRAMMER, nor do I want to be a programmer. I “code” my own simple HTML because I hate the overhead -– excess and unnecessary code — HTML editors insist on adding. (I still refer to my Netscape 2 Unleashed “bible” for rarely used HTML coding. I bought the book in 1998 for $4.99.)

ANYWAY, this rant is prompted by the loss of a Java application called TinyURL. I used it for years, but when I replaced a hard drive and reloaded the latest and greatest apps, including Google Chrome (Version 54.0.2840.99 m) — TinyURL wasn’t functioning.

Being a person of average intelligence, I dug around the WWW and discovered that Google — in its Microsoft-like wisdom — elected to eliminate Java extensions; translation: “Goodbye, TinyURL.”

OK. There always is Mozilla Firefox. Not exactly. Mozilla is planning to abandon Java by 2Q17. No sense downloading the still free Firefox browser, trying to auto-transfer all the Google Chrome bookmarks — many of which were trashed in the transfer from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Why do I need — OK, want — TinyURL at my beck and call? Because unlike some bloggers and fake “journalists,” I cite my sources. I developed that habit as a cub reporter back before The Flood.

In order to cite my source, I hide the source location — URL — in an HTML string surrounding the “plain text” source id. As an example,

Trump to nominate ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of State

which is coded as

<A HREF=”http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/12/12/trump-secretary-state-announcement-tuesday/95359074/” TARGET=”SecState”>Trump to nominate ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of State</A>

The same information, using TinyURL instead of the URL shown above would be

<A HREF=”http://tinyurl.com/zdqdo72” TARGET=”SecState”>Trump to nominate ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of State</A>

If I wanted to site my source after the title, the TinyURL REALLY comes in handy, e.g.,

Trump to nominate ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of State (http://tinyurl.com/zdqdo72)

As with most things, there are work-arounds. Perhaps not as clean as “the real thing,” but functional none-the-less.

I bookmarked the TinyURL page — www.TinyURL.com — and when I have an unwieldy URL — such as the USA Today article — I copy the long URL and paste it into the TinyURL Enter a long URL to make tiny field, click on the Make TinyURL and Matzatee (a/k/a Eureka), the once-long URL is now a considerably shorter TinyURL URL.

About the TARGET=”***” part of the URL: TARGET instructs the browser to open up a new window rather than replacing the existing window; I think this is better for the reader who can look at the referenced site without losing my site.

It’s not enough that some programmer who probably doesn’t use the programs I use decides to change the User Interface (UI) — for no apparent user advantage — or to decide for the user what the user must have. Microsoft has a long history of this; with each new iteration of Office enough is changed — sometimes removed — to make getting up to speed on the newest version painful. Google is aping Microsoft.

People, If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it..

For the record: The angle brackets < and > used in the URLs were coded: &lt; (less than) and &gt; (greater than)

Opuscula Business 101: Negotiate From position of strength

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN at least 8 years, the U.S. is negotiating from a position of strength.

This is not a Democrat party position, at least since Jimmy Carter. GOP candidates have been hardly more aggressive in negotiations with America’s “friends” and non-friends (“enemy” is not PC until January 20, 2017.)

Now comes the brash, blunt businessman who has successfully negotiated contacts at home and abroad.

Boeing, which makes billions as a defense contractor, is seen by Trump as padding its bill for a new (modified?) 747 – an old design. Boeing would have been better served by offering POTUS a new 777X. Trump COULD, as Obama did, go outside the U.S. for his transportation needs. Airbus has an equally large offering, the A350 series compares nicely with Boeing’s options.

(For his 2011-2012 campaign, Obama bought two $1.1 million (each) motor homes made in Canada, ignoring a competitive American)-made motor home; otherwise he campaigned from AF1 on the taxpayers’ dollar – as other politicos seeking re-election have done.)

CHINESE leaders are piqued off because Trump -– still only “president elect” — had a telephone conversation with Taiwan’s lady president. The Chinese consider Taiwan part if China. Being a despotic government that violates its citizens — and guests — human rights it considered the call was a slap in the face.

Well it should be. China has been manipulating its currency against the dollar,

It routinely sends shoddy, dangerous materials (dry wall, tires, toys, clothing) to the U.S. and sends fish fed on feces for our tables.

One of the issues with tilapia farmed in China is that smaller, independent farmers face economic pressures to use animal manure rather than more expensive commercial feed for farmed fish, a practice which contaminates water and makes the fish more susceptible to spreading foodborne diseases. A July 2009 report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the safety of food imports from China noted that in that country "Fish are often raised in ponds where they feed on waste from poultry and livestock" and cited an increased rate of FDA rejection of fish imports from China between 2000 and 2008.

Similarly, an October 2012 Bloomberg article observed that the FDA had rejected 820 Chinese seafood shipments since 2007, including 187 that contained tilapia, and furnished examples of the practice of using manure as feed for farmed fish in China.

Talking to Taiwan’s president might have upset the Chinese leadership, but it put them on notice that, like Boeing, there is a new negotiator in town; one that has a long and successful history at the bargaining table.

Opuscula Who’s to blame For ‘Ghost Ship’ Fire in Oakland?

THE FINGER POINTING following the Oakland CA fire that claimed at least 36 lives has begun.

Who was responsible? The building owner? The building’s lessee? The artists and squatters?

None of the above – or perhaps all of the above and more.

The blame rests primarily on the Oakland and Alameda County governments.

By all accounts, the local governments were aware that

   (a) The building was unsafe for any use OTHER THAN AS A WAREWHOUSE.

   (b) The building was being occupied as living quarters by squatters; had there been any safety inspections the squatters would (should) have been told to relocate.

   (c) The building was used by artists as a studio; some of the artists are/were painters and painters use flammable materials; other artists worked in wood; had there been any safety inspections the artists would (should) have been told to relocate.

   (d) The electrical wiring failed to meet code; had any electrical code inspections been performed recently, the building would (should) be shut down until the building was in compliance.

   (e) Access to, and egress from, the building’s second floor was limited and reportedly unsafe. Had the building recently been inspected, the second floor could (should) have been sealed off, especially since there was no alternate means of egress – specifically an outside fire escape.

   (f) The building failed to meet fire safety codes; it could (should) have been shuttered until it met code.

I suspect the six points above are just the tip of the iceberg of reasons why the building should have been inspected for code violations and closed.

Granted, there is more blame to share. The owner of the building allegedly refused to get the wiring fixed. The lessee allegedly fixed the problem but failed to get code enforcement signoff. As this is keyed, the exact cause of the fatal fire has yet to be established.

According to a New York newspaper,

The fire tore through a two-story structure called the Ghost Ship, in the Fruitvale neighborhood, which was used as a live-in and work space for a loose tribe of striving artists.

Images of the interior captured before Friday showed it cluttered with art, antiques and musical instruments beneath exposed wooden rafters.

The building had a permit to operate as a warehouse, but not a residence or party site. It had been under investigation for code violations.

CNN reports that

A criminal investigation team from the Alameda County District Attorney's Office is on site, working alongside law enforcement, the Oakland Fire Department and federal investigators to ascertain criminal liability, and, if so, who could be responsible, District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said.

"It is not clear right now and is too early to speculate," she said of the circumstances of the fire that broke out late Friday. "We will leave no stone unturned."

California is a strange state. The San Francisco Bay area has for a long time — dating at least back to the 1960s — been home to a “unique” culture of hippies and three-piece suits.

San Francisco is one of the nation’s most expensive cities in which to reside; Oakland, across the Bay from San Francisco has a relatively lower cost of housing, yet — according to reports — housing is scarce, ergo the number of squatters in the warehouse.

For all that, the local government must bear the lion’s share of the blame for the deaths — 36 “and rising.” The governments plainly failed to perform the jobs they are charged to perform; they failed to protect the citizens — taxpayers or not, residents none-the-less — by knowingly allowing a situation to exist that could — and eventually did — cost lives.

The condition of the building and the occupancy of the building apparently were well known to the local government agencies; that knowledge makes the local governments culpable.

Opuscula Dear Donald, Where is your Sense of humor?

Dear POTUS-elect Trump:
LIGHTEN UP!

A sure sign that a politician, even a novice such as Mr. Trump, has “made it” is that comedians mock the politico.

Alec Baldwin, who happens to be a died-in-the-wool Clintonite, pokes fun at Trump and Trump lets it rankle him.

The POTUS-elect needs to
    (a) Get a thicker skin
    (b) Get some decent writers to fight back in kind

Soon to be ex-president Obama suffered the barbs of the few non-liberal comedians and cartoonists for eight years without showing half the umbrage POTUS-elect Trump is showing over Baldwin’s characterization on Saturday Night Live, a/k/a SNL.

ISRAEL BRIEFLY HAD a similar-to-SNL tv program in the mid-1970s called Nekui Rosh - roughly translated as Brain Wash that poked fun -– and Israeli “fun” could make SNL “fun” seem harmless — at the country’s politicians.

Like SNL, Nekui Rosh was a “must see.”

Then Menachem Begin finally was elected Prime Minister (head of government). Begin was PM from 20 June 1977 to 5 August 1981 and from 5 August 1981 to 10 October 1983.

During his tenure he accomplished a number things the opposition party — in power for 40-plus years — never managed to accomplish. Perhaps the most noteworthy and lasting thing Begin achieved was what has proven to be a lasting peace with Egypt — a peace that, sadly, cost Anwar Sadat’s life.

FOR ALL THAT Begin did one thing that — at least for me — tarnished his otherwise brilliant political career: he cancelled Nekui Rosh because it poked fun at him. The program — which I watched faithfully even with limited Hebrew — poked fun at everyone — left, right, and even those who didn’t know where they stood.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. of A. a tv program called Laugh-in (1967-1973) was poking fun at just about every politician, regardless of party.

During Richard Nixon’s term as president he frequently was the target of Laugh-in’s humor.

But UNLIKE POTUS-elect Trump and SNL, Nixon didn’t fight with the show; he joined it! One of the show’s trademark lines was “Sock it to me,” most often spoken by Judy Carne.

For Nixon’s appearance he got to utter the line; a line used today to promote reruns of the program. Nixon was not known for his sense of humor, but Laugh-in promos in late 2016 use Nixon looking into the camera telling everyone to “Sock it to me.”

I don’t know if POTUS, etc has a sense of humor or not, but he would do well to “meet the enemy on the enemy’s terms.” Trump HAS been on SNL before, as have a number of other political notables. Fight fire with fire — or in this case, comedy with comedy.

SNL, akin to Laugh-in and Nekui Rosh is an equal opportunity offender; as long as it pokes fun at everyone, it’s worth watching.

Come on, Donald, lighten up. Besides, you want to increase employment; as long as SNL can poke fun at you, Baldwin will have a job.

Opuscula U.S. liberal media: Admitted terrorism Not a “terrorism act”

ACCORDING TO SEVERAL news reports, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a Somali who came to the U.S. via Pakistan, shortly before Artan crashed his car into a group of stuucents and then went on a slashing spree, he wrote

“I can’t take it anymore. America! Stop interfering with other countries, especially the Muslim Ummah. We are not weak. We are not weak, remember that.”

An ABC News report stated, “Artan's post also invokes the name Anwar Al-Awlaki, a radical American-born al-Qaeda cleric, describing him as a ‘hero’ Al-Awlaki was killed in 2011 but his propaganda has been linked to several domestic terrorist attacks in the years after his death.”

“If you want us Muslims to stop carrying lone wolf attacks, then make peace,” the post reads. “We will not let you sleep unless you give peace to the Muslims.”

Later in the morning news I learn that we should not rush to conclude that the attack was an act of terrorism.

Nonsense.

Defining “terrorism”

Dictionary definition:

1.   the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

2.   the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

3.   a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

FBI definition:

18 U.S.C. § 2331 defines "international terrorism" and "domestic terrorism" for purposes of Chapter 113B of the U.S. Code, entitled "Terrorism.”

"International terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics:

Involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;

Appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and

Occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S., or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum.*

"Domestic terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics:

Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;

Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and

Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.

18 U.S.C. § 2332b defines the term "federal crime of terrorism" as an offense that:

Is calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct; and

Is a violation of one of several listed statutes, including § 930(c) (relating to killing or attempted killing during an attack on a federal facility with a dangerous weapon); and § 1114 (relating to killing or attempted killing of officers and employees of the U.S.).

* FISA defines "international terrorism" in a nearly identical way, replacing "primarily" outside the U.S. with "totally" outside the U.S. 50 U.S.C. § 1801(c).

ACLU & Patriot Act

Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Pub. L. No. 107-52) expanded the definition of terrorism to cover ""domestic,"" as opposed to international, terrorism. A person engages in domestic terrorism if they do an act ""dangerous to human life"" that is a violation of the criminal laws of a state or the United States, if the act appears to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping. Additionally, the acts have to occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States and if they do not, may be regarded as international terrorism.

The ACLU further defines terrorism on the site.

GIVEN ALL THE ABOVE, including Artan’s Facebook rant, it seems clear that Artan’s attacks — first the car and then with the knife — were intended to terrorize the population of the Ohio university.

So why, can someone explain to me, are we being told not to “rush to judgement” that this was an act of terrorism by a terrorist — never mind that this attack was carried out by a Muslim terrorist. “PC” or not, that is the fact.

The ABC story noted that Authorities said they have not determined a motive and the investigation is ongoing.

NBC News has identified the suspect as 18-year-old Abdul Razak Ali Artan. According to NBC, Artan was a Somali refugee and Ohio State student who left his homeland with his family in 2007. They lived in Pakistan before coming to the U.S., where Artan became a permanent resident in 2014.