Pokemon 2.0: Let’s Step It Up A Notch

28 Thursday Jul 2016

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America, green space chickens, Pokemon, The People

I see a lot of folks out there playing Pokemon Go. In their cars. At the gym. In the store. My fireman buddy reports they come to the station day and night looking for those elusive … whatever they ares. They’ve overrun the park where I jog and hike. Today when I ventured out it was about 100 Degrees so there weren’t that many to run around. Actually, at 100 my “run” was more of a stooping, sweating, grumbling, weary stumble (but I did it!). Anyway, it almost looks like they’re having fun with it all. Good for them. Did you know the Pokemon can hibernate? Or, was that incubate? Whatever.

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Constitutimon!? bc.ctvnews.ca.

I’ve come up with a short list of things that could be included, scavenger-style, in the next update for the game. Wouldn’t it be fun to go around beating the digital bushes to find:

An honest politician?

A useful government program?

Or a Constitutional government program?

A government program that wasn’t bankrupting us?

Local lone wolf terrorists? (Think of the fun they’d have collecting their gold coins or stars(??) and fighting of the Caliphate!)

A plausible explanation for how WTC 7 collapsed without the aid of explosives?

A way to quantitatively ease the Federal Reserve out of existence?

How about helping O.J. find the real killer(s)?

Jobs for all these protesters who spring up everywhere?

Obama’s birth certificate? (I know 4G ain’t the best in some parts of Kenya…)

Any “real” Georgia fans who followed Mark Richt down to Miami?

An end to the federal regulatory code?

Gun free zones which are also crime free?

The lost city of Detroit?

The computer that comes up with all these awful television and movie plots?

Zamfir? (Remember him? Master of the pan flu … no.)

Snipes! (Who didn’t love a snipe hunt?)

Paul Ryan’s spine?

The Smurf village.

A feasible way to excise D.C. from North America?

Men who have read 50 Shades of Grey? (A real challenge.)

Green space chickens?

All the other Pokemon-ers who have fallen off cliffs or into wells or down holes.

With all those folks out there looking for something, I figure they might want to try finding something other than cartoon characters. Trivial enough? Probably not.

The World Is Changing. You In?

28 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes, Other Columns

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Tags

Amazon, books, changes, economy, James Altucher, jobs, money

Earlier today I wrote an article about how sitting in a cubicle like a zombie will kill you. If you’re already undead, you might as well go all the way, right? In my story I mentioned that the job itself might be a problem.

Then I read a couple of pieces by James Altucher (one usually leads to another). You need to read them now. The first is 10 Reasons Your Boss Hates You. The Next is 10 Reasons You Have to Quit Your Job (in 2016). Go ahead, read them now – I’ll wait right here.

Okay, he’s right, right? The old economy is on life support. And the “old way” hasn’t really been around that long. At any rate it isn’t working anymore.

5) Income is Disappearing

In the past 25 years, real income has gone from $36,000 to $33,000 for people ages 18 to 35.

Why? Who knows. Because nobody cares.

Then the talking blobs on TV tell you you have to start saving during those years.

Meanwhile, the cost of living has gone up.

How do you save, when it costs more to LIVE, while the money coming in the bank is going down.

Society is being strangled. I don’t blame anyone. It’s not the government’s fault. It’s not Wall Street’s fault. Or Main Street’s fault.

Jobs were a myth from the beginning.

The Industrial Revolution standardized society so that factory workers would show up at the same time, have the same education, hit the same bolt on the same nut at the same time, and get paid every two weeks.

That’s the truth, good, bad or indifferent. I’m a fuddy-duddy. Yet, even I realize things are changing and must change. It’s not just incomes that are going down (away?). Home ownership is at the lowest level in over 50 years – only 62% of adults own a house. And, most of them don’t even own one – a bank owns it for them.

The whole economy is being shaken up. Facebook, today, passed Berkshire Hathaway in terms of market cap. Let that sink in for a second. Then again, many of you are reading this right now because you saw it on Facebook, not through one of Buffett’s companies.

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vimeo.com/HP.

I had a conversation with a friend yesterday and another, similar one today about how I publish words. To some, what I do seems like wizardry. Maybe it is in a sense. But, its academic and logistical, not magical. Me – computer – internet – Amazon – your computer, phone or bookshelf. Kind of like: cow – farmer – bottle – truck – grocery store – your fridge. Easy, huh?

The old economy is on life support and the funeral arrangements are now being made for the traditional publishing industry (and the bookstores). Meanwhile, Amazon keeps posting record profit after record profit. They capitalize on me and my computer and I on them. Heck, I’m preparing to give them two new amazing works to offer world-wide in a few days (weeks? – y’all know I’m slow). Then, I’m publishing more. And more after that.

If the world is changing, I’m going to make the most of it. I hope you do to.

Your Job is Killing You

28 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

death, health, obesity, work

You knew that but now there’s scientific evidence. The Telegraph has an excellent piece on the threat of the modern, sedentary lifestyle or work style.

Office workers must exercise for one hour a day to combat the deadly risk of modern working lifestyles, a major Lancet study has found.

Research on more than one million adults found that sitting for at least eight hours a day could increase the risk of premature death by up to 60 per cent.

Scientists said sedentary lifestyles were now posing as great a threat to public health as smoking, and were causing more deaths than obesity.

They urged anyone spending hours at their desk to change their daily routine to take a five minute break every hour, as well as exercise at lunchtimes and evenings.

It’s not enough that you have the work itself to kill you – the angry bosses, the irritating co-workers, the customers who want everything for free (with no respect to boot). It’s also the hours of dull, slumped sitting there, wallowing in it all.

The EPA and other monitoring groups have long said the air inside our offices and frequently our houses is more polluted than the worst air outside. What surprised me about this story is the nugget that the ills associated with the cubicle coffin are more dangerous than the threat of obesity. Of course, the two are closely linked. I’ve worked in some large offices and visited others; healthy workers are in short supply.

the-working-dead

weknowmemes.com

What didn’t surprise me here is the call by the study authors for more government programs. In an age when, for many the state has replaced both God and family, everything under the sun cries out for a program or two. Interestingly enough, they never seem to work or they make things worse.

Luckily, the story also provides a solution one can utilize now and without government lording or interference. Exercise is the solution. Through fitness one literally has the ability to forestall death (at least the accelerated death of slow office work). At some companies the workouts are being incorporated into the work – standing desks, treadmill desks, gyms, longer breaks, etc. These are the better companies, the ones one would want to work for anyway. Those that don’t get with the program are a problem. If you want to be healthy, you need to take stock of what you do for a living and how you do it.

One doesn’t have to lead a Dilbert-like existence nor load boxcars all day. Believe it or not, there is a happy, healthy medium out there. Go find it.

The War on Cigars

28 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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cigars, fascism, FDA, government

I’ve written in the past few months, briefly, about the FDA’s new authority over and campaign against the cigar industry. I was planning a larger, comprehensive story on the new regulations and the potentially devastating impact they will likely have. Christopher Westley, writing at mises.org, has done a lot of the heavy lifting for me – and you.

Check out his The FDA’s Cigar Fascism, July 26, 2016.

The FDA estimates that small businesses like El Titan, which produces 250,000 to 300,000 cigars per year, will pay $278,000 to $397,000 in application fees and other costs during the initial compliance period. While El Titan will be able to pass some of those fees on to the companies that hire it to make private-label smokes, it will still need to raise prices.

The new rules will have the greatest impact on companies less than a decade old, which will be required to apply for pre-market approval at an average cost of $6,560 per application, according to FDA estimates.

Westley, quoting a Miami Herald story.

These are extraordinarily high prices to pay – for nothing. The FDA asserts it has a duty to protect public health. So, cigars will now be subject to the same rigorous but useless testings and waiting periods that, as-is, keep new drugs away from needy patients, often until after the patient dies. Some doctors estimate the FDA process kills more people than it helps. Smoke on that.

IMG_20150528_093517093

As good as his article is, it doesn’t even begin to cover some of the other nonsense regulations which will start taking effect soon (like next week soon). I will probably still someday add my own spin on the subject. I may wait to see how it actually plays out in CigarLand on a daily basis. Higher prices and aggravation are assuredly in store for all.

Westley does call it what it is, perfectly – fascism.

Top Ten Things To Do In The Summer Heat

27 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

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hot, south, summer

Summers in the South are always warm yet often unpredictable. Some are blazing, burning, horribly hot. Others are mild, they pass into Fall with little fanfare. This one is what I call a slow summer; it seemed to ramp itself up out of nowhere and now, barely halfway through, it’s just hot. Constantly hot. 99 degrees with high humidity hot. I am officially over this season and ready for Autumn.

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Pinterest.

Being as such, I give you a fun list of things to do in the sweltering heat of July and August:

Sweat. A lot. Outside. Inside. Early in the morning. Late in the afternoon. Better drink plenty of water (before it evaporates).
Stay inside all day pretending it’s snowing outside. Yankees have cabin fever. We develop something similar. It’s really not that bad out there but one gets so comfortable in the air-conditioning. Then, stepping outside, it feels so much worse than it really is. Or, maybe it is. ???
Do the fun less than half an hour drive, midday, and get all wet down your back with a profuse sweat because the car AC can’t cope. It will be running ice-cold just in time for you to get out at your destination.
Loss weight. This one is fun and positive. I always drop pounds in the Summer. You? I just don’t feel like eating anything – especially anything warmer than ice cream.
Ponder how the pioneers and the old-timers did it without AC.
Call the AC repairman and/or the electric company to find out why the unit crashed in the middle of the hottest day on record.
Write a blog post complaining about how hot it is.
Melt. Or catch on fire – your choice.
Search weather.com for northern cities or mountain locations to see how much cooler they have it at the moment. They do it too; the jealousy usually turns around mid-January.
Know it’s hot. Feel that it’s hot. Then, inexplicably, go out at 3 p.m. for a jog or a few fun hours with the lawn mower. This is a rite of passage, especially for men. A time to show “we still got it”. Whatever “it” is is a mystery. Amnesia, maybe?
Have a mild heat stroke and forget to stop with ten things to do in the heat…

Fall, where are you?

Mass Murder and Murder at Mass

26 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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Christians, France, ISIS, Jesus Christ, murder, terrorism, The West

Jesus told Peter “the gates of hell shall not prevail against” the Church. Matthew 16:18 (KJV). He did not say the Church wouldn’t be tested, attacked. Now, though they cannot beat us ultimately, the legions of hell have indeed come knocking. They’ve made war on churches in the Holy Land and the Middle East for years. Now they are attacking sanctuaries in the heart of Christendom.

Matt Drudge.

How To Lose An Election

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

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America, Constitution, Democrats, election, firearms, freedom, gun control, Hillary Clinton, Second Amendment, The People

As if the emails, fundraising, felony-dodging, Jew-bashing (was that just part of the Bernie bashing?), terrorist courting, and other shenanigans weren’t enough, a Hillary delegate pretty much admitted that the Democrats want an outright ban of firearms and a deletion of the Second Amendment. She also admitted they think the people are stupid.

“Saying you want to ban guns altogether, that’s going to piss everybody off,” the Clinton alternate delegate, Mary Bayer, told a Project Veritas reporter.

Instead, Bayer revealed, Democrats use “moderate” language when it comes to guns to obscure their true purpose, a complete elimination of the Second Amendment.

“You have to take that sort of moderate… ‘We just wanna have common sense legislation so our children are safe!’” Bayer told the reporter, adding, “You say shit like that, and then people will buy into it.”

At least she called it what it is – “sh!t” that’s going to p!ss everybody off. Just tell lies and the people will buy it…

For the record, I don’t think Hillary gives a flip about the Second Amendment one way or the other. There’s no bribe …er… nothing in it for her. It’s some of the carnival sideshow nuts in the party that keep pushing gun control (you know, “sh!t like that”).

oowrestling.com.

The DNC knows it is in deep trouble this cycle. Come November the diehards and the gun grabbers are in for a rude awakening – something akin to what the Trump supporters will know in a few years.

Just remember, the Second Amendment was included in the Constitution to protect the people against this exact breed of political low-life.

Ansbach Update

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

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immigration, terrorism

Earlier they tried to say he might have just been a suicidal nut though details were then scarce. Last night I posited we would learn, today, which country the bomber had immigrated from – it was Syria. I also wondered how long the police had been aware of him. That answer is: long enough to arrange for his deportation. The delay (however long) allowed the ISIS “soldier” enough time to carry out the attack. A case of too little and too late.

Literary Pirates of the Internet

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in Books For Sale, Other Columns

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books, internet, Perrin Lovett, Perrin on Politics, piracy, The Happy Little Cigar Book, theft

This is not a story about a new ride at Disneyland – wouldn’t that one be boring. No, this is about me and my beloved books – I hope that’s not boring.

I’m working as steady as I can on two new volumes which should be released in tandem (or close to it) and released soon. One is another cigar book, a work of pure humor. The other is dead serious, a guide to fighting terrorism on the personal, day-to-day basis. Soon, folks, soon. Ready those debit cards now.

While I was taking a break I did a periodic check on The Happy Little Cigar Book. While it is not a bestseller, it has been more successful than I had originally hoped. Thank you all! I also discovered that it is available at Barnes and Noble. I had forgotten that CreateSpace has a B&N connection. Or, maybe I made that up in my head. Anyway, I’m now at the first and second largest bookstores in the world.

nimbus-image-1469392393063

I need 5-star reviews here to match Amazon. B&N.com.

The HLCB is also (allegedly) available from some not so reputable sites as I discovered on Friday. My Googling led me to several sites claiming to offer free downloads of my book. Free downloads of MY book! That is piracy. It’s theft of my copyright protected material. Two of these are linked to Google somehow – probably via an aggregation service anyone can use. The others I looked at, like the one below, are probably just scams. I read up on this phenomenon. “Download” means get a free virus. I do not advise looking into this. That, and they likely operate outside of U.S. jurisdiction or through a laborynth of servers.

I DID NOT and DO NOT authorize this theft of my property! I’m also not attributing this clipped picture (fair play).

This is a plain, simple DMCA violation. I have a warning right there inside my books, digital and paperback. I have an action under 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 512, et seq., provided I could pinpoint exactly who the pirates are. It’s odd for me to ponder having to use one of the many laws I can’t stand. I’ll probably let it go; blades are more my style anyway.

Part of me is angry but mostly I am flattered. At least I have enough notoriety to get into the scam sites. I was also a little mad that I did not find any pirated copies of Perrin On Politics – then again, that one is free to begin with.

I may take action but I probably will not. I could send a DMCA warning and notice (a cease a desist letter) along with a civil pre-litigation notice. I doubt much would come of it.

However, one site says the HLCB has a 4.5 star rating out of about 6,000 views. If that means they gave away 6,000 copies, then I am owed a tidy little sum. Those numbers are likely fluff and lies put up by some Chinese hacker, trying to get your bank information or something. Enough said.

For now I’ll just be flattered and a slight bit amused. You, all of you, please avoid the pirates out there. Fake or not, these postings are illegal reproductions – stolen goods. Get the real thing at Amazon or B&N. And, look out for my new material coming very soon (to real sites and stores and with real pricing).

Perrin

Teutonic Inclarity

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

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Germany, government, murder, terrorism, The West

Much seems unclear to Merkle, Joachim Herrmann, and the rest of Germany’s governing elite. Herrmann said it was unclear whether the Syrian “refugee” (answered that, eh?) in Ansback intended to murder others or if his was merely a suicide gone extreme.

Let me clear that up for them: if Herr “Refugee” had wanted to commit suicide he could have done so with a shotgun in the woods or with some sleeping pills or something. He could have done it in Syria too (easier there – just wait on the corner for the next allied bombing run – suicide by Empire). Clear as a bell, I would say. To absolve themselves of uncertainty these inept ponderers should just resign.

An alternative thought: If Western life is so bad that the poor “refugees” are committing suicide and turning to domestic violence, don’t we owe it to them to repatriate them back to where they belong? Might help the natives too.