Tag Archives: Idiots

It’s Gone! Yankees Say Goodbye To George Steinbrenner’s Facial Hair Rules

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Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

After 50+ Years Yankees FINALLY Get Rid Of Facial Hair Policy

A 2026 free agent, Cousin Itt  could now sign a Yankee contract. First he must clarify is that is facial or head hair.

After more than 50 years of enforcing a no long hair or beards policy, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said on February 21, 2025  they would discontinue the facial hair ban.

Seven years ago we told the complete fascinating, tangled story of how George Steinbrenner implemented his no long hair or beards rule and the controversies that erupted since then.

Some media outlets are saying the ban started in 1976. It did not. The ban began Continue reading →

What Are Baseball Players Celebrating? Certainly Not Winning The World Series.

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New York Giants Celebrate Winning The National League Pennant September 30. 1937

Or, How To Put Celebrating In Perspective

The way baseball players celebrate or more accurately carry on when they win a regular ball game makes me scratch me head. It also makes me a little nauseous.

C.J. Abrams gets a Gatorade shower after delivering a tenth inning game winning single over the Atlanta Braves for the last place Washington Nationals. photo: San Diego Union Tribune

On September 28, 2022 the Washington Nationals Continue reading →

The Amazing Pat Benatar Can Still Belt Out The Songs At Age 69

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Pat Benatar Performs Promises In The Dark Live In Albany July 2022

Pat Benatar performs live July 2022 Albany NYRocker Pat Benatar has been performing with her husband, guitarist and songwriter Neil Geraldo for over 43 years.

Musicians don’t fret that their skills will deteriorate the way singers do.

A powerful rock singer usually has no more than ten to fifteen years of prime vocal strength and then its a slow steady decline as their range and power diminish. The decline can be devastating to the singer and painfully sad for fans of a band. Ask Steve Perry of Journey or Lou Gramm of Foreigner.

Not so with Pat Benatar.

At age 69 Pat Benatar has been singing her heart out for over 40 years. This performance last month in Albany, NY shows that Pat can still hit her notes.

Husband Neil Geraldo is one of the most underrated guitarists in rock. His fluid style of playing does not get noticed by the casual rock fan. He is an amazing talent.

In this clip Pat tells the audience that the musical couple are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary.

No hair dye.

No auto-tune Continue reading →

Funny & Strange Protest Signs – Marching For A Cause No Matter How Ridiculous

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What Are The Protestors Marching For?

The Signs Will Tell You

What am I tired of? Protests. And Signs.

Maybe these signs will sway people. Maybe not.

How will kids settle who’s the fastest?

It’s about time that someone spoke up for the Morlocks. The privileged Eloi get to live above ground, even if they do eventually become dinner for Morlocks. Continue reading →

Idiot or Autistic? New York’s 19th Century “Idiot Asylum”

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New York’s Idiot Asylum Was A School / Prison For Children Who Were Often Not “Idiots”

The New York Asylum for Idiots Report 1867 coverWithout discussing the question how far down in the scale of idiocy the work of education can practicably go, this much may be said: that some idiots are teachable to an extent which will fully compensate for the amount of labor involved in their instruction. These certainly should be cared for by the State.

It will be seen by the report of the Superintendent, that according to the last census, there were in the State, 303 idiots under 15 years of age. No one can examine these returns without being convinced that the actual number is at least double the number so returned. Were only a third of these fit subjects for management and training in a public institution, even then it is obvious that the present provision made by the State falls short of their needs.

– from the 1867 Sixteenth Annual report of the New York Asylum for Idiots: transmitted to the Legislature, January 17, 1867

Today it would be politically incorrect to label anyone with mental disabilities or deficiencies as an idiot. The word mentally retarded has also fallen out of common usage.

Idiot.

Imbecile.

Moron.

In the early 20th century these words took on new psychiatric meaning, which has since been expunged from the nomenclature of psychiatry. In the 19th century those words were pretty much interchangeable for anyone considered mentally deficient or inherently stupid.

What Do We Do With “Idiots”?

The study and understanding of psychology and medical conditions related to learning and developmental disorders was virtually nonexistent before the 20th century. In a large state like New York, a facility was developed at public expense to deal with so-called idiots. Hence came the “Idiot Asylum.”

The Idiot Asylum Syracuse NY circa 1860Often parents couldn’t understand why a child wasn’t speaking. paying attention, responding to social cues, or learning like other children. Continue reading →

Why People Follow The Herd & Special Interest Group Lies Become Truths

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Lies Becoming Truths

You can infer what you want about what is written here. I’m not naming names.

Certain groups and causes now overwhelm the media, and in turn our citizens with their lies. Their lies get repeated over and over. Their special cause, whatever it may be, works hard to get the truth obfuscated.

Lies get accepted into truth.

Henri AmielThe man who most eloquently summed up why this happens, was Swiss writer Henri Frédéric Amiel (1821 – 1881). From 1847 until his death, Amiel recorded his insights about humanity in his diary,  Journal intime. It is a brilliant self-introspective work.

This quote best reflects what we are experiencing today.

“Man defends himself as much as he can against truth, as a child does against a medicine, as the man of the Platonic cave does against the light. He does not willingly follow his path, for he has to be dragged along backward. ‘The natural liking for the false has several causes: the inheritance of prejudices, which produces an unconscious habit, a slavery; the predominance of the imagination over the reason, which affects the understanding; the predominance of the passions over the conscience, which depraves the heart; the predominance of the will over the intelligence, which vitiates the character. A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism and doubt.”

In 1869 Continue reading →

Lawmakers Hope To Charge Everyone To Enter NYC – The Astonishing Total Congestion Pricing Plan

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With Vehicle Congestion Pricing Imminent, On Horizon Is Total Congestion Pricing

Pricing Wall NYC

Proposed Total Congestion Fee Map – A plan to tax all New Yorkers to enter Manhattan

By Lipra Loof, Special STAFF REPORTER to SNCA | April 1, 2019

New York City Mayor Bill de Blassio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, have come together to support a congestion fee for all vehicles entering Manhattan from the Battery to 60th Street. As controversial as that idea is, the next proposal may be considered drastic and have some citizens scratching their heads.

Total Congestion Pricing – a plan to charge anyone entering any part of Manhattan has arrived. The proposal is being hailed by some as a courageous and innovative way to further reduce Manhattan’s congestion.

This plan would see the city charge a fixed fee to enter Manhattan via bus, train, bicycle and even walking.

Last night at a news conference alongside city and state officials, Mr. de Blassio and Mr. Cuomo unveiled the plan.

The city and state chiefs who rarely see eye to eye, said in unison, “We were not originally on board for the vehicle congestion pricing. But car-hating special interest groups and the MTA with their constant need for money have forced our hand and we had to cave in. After the vehicle congestion pricing plan gets finalized and hopefully passed by the state legislature, we will try and institute this bigger and bolder plan to rid our streets of all congestion.”

The governor and mayor continued, “We can completely eliminate congestion by removing the main cause of congestion-  the people.”

“If people don’t want to pay a fee to be here, then we’ll have no people in the city and we will have solved the congestion issue once and for all,” Mr. de Blassio enthused.

Fifth Avenue – The way the whole city may look after Total Congestion Pricing is instituted.

Deputy Mayor Paul Frehley said “Putting an eight dollar fee on drivers, is okay for starters. Continue reading →

The Shape Of Your Head Indicates Everything. 19th Century Quackery- Phrenology

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Fowler & Wells, Phrenologists – The Art of Reading The Shape Of Your Head.

phrenologyWhat sort of foolishness did people believe in the 19th century? Phrenology, which might sound silly today, was studied and taken seriously by many people.

Phrenology is the “science” of reading character traits by the shape of your head. And of course there were plenty of experts – phrenologists – who could perform such accurate assessments.

Of course it is a pseudo-science, that is absurd, and yet there are still people today who believe in Phrenology. Continue reading →

This “Conversation” Actually Happened On A Help Website

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A One-Sided Stupid Conversation With A Help Website

computer typingWhether its an appliance, a car or a computer, that you have a question about, there are “expert” web sites that will answer your question – almost always for a fee it turns out.

These sites claim an expert is available to immediately have a conversation with you and will answer your question. A pop-up appears on your browser with a name and avatar and asks you to type in your question.

You may or may not realize that most of the time there is no one on the other end conversing with you.

It’s a “bot” with an automated algorithmic program, which will do nothing but in the end try and extract $ or £ out of your purse. No matter what you type and say to the “helper”, you will get a response. Any user of one of these sites will earnestly type in their questions and possibly discover they are wasting their time by having a one-sided exchange.

How mush stupider could I get? Well read below. Here’s a transcript of a “conversation” I had with a music instrument appraiser’s assistant. This is the response I received to my “questions”.

The Conversation

Virtual Assistant avatarP*** Ma****ki, Musical Instrument Appraiser’s Assistant

Welcome! How can I help with your appraisal question?

You

I have a nuclear trumpet which when played sets off fusion bombs. I have some hydrogen and extra uranium that I can load into it. My concern is that I cannot play it on Jupiter without a car. I’m 5-years-old and considered retarded by my parents, Bathory and Dagwood. I’ve told them its not PC anymore to call anyone retarded but they are 116 and 111-years-old respectively. We live in the rubbish bin and it is very dark in here. Will you adopt my trumpet or me?

6 Ways Television Is Helping To Make Baseball Unwatchable

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How Television Has Helped To Ruin Baseball

Watching the game from center field – the only way an entire generation of TV director’s have decided to televise baseball

Here are just a few of the ways television has helped to ruin watching baseball. None of the corrective suggestions will be heeded, but someone has to point it out.

1 – The camera angles

Guess what? About 80% of the time you’re not watching baseball. What you are seeing is four guys – a pitcher’s back, a catcher, a batter and an umpire.

What kind of a lead is the runner taking? Where are the outfielders shaded? Is the overused shift in effect? Where was that ball hit? Is it going to be a hit?

How would we know? The audience rarely sees any other part of the field except from the center field camera.

Unless you attend games in person and sit in center field with a high power telescope, this is not the way anyone views an entire baseball game. Nor should it be the way to televise one.

It would be nice to see the return of the overhead mezzanine high camera from behind the catcher so we can see the whole field.

So here are two angles from behind the plate – one high and wide the other not as high. Both of these camera angles are more conducive and infinitely superior to the view you see on most broadcasts.

2- The busy screen

I don’t know about most people but I want to watch a baseball game, not be diverted by ads and a constant scroll of information.

While not every channel is guilty of the news scroll on the bottom of the screen, your view is still cluttered with unnecessary information.

Watching the World Series there are no other scores or news to scroll on the screen so you won’t see the scroll there. Yet that doesn’t stop clutter.

Showing “Fox World Series Game 1” in the upper right hand portion of the screen for the ENTIRE game? Does the score, runners on base, balls and strikes, number of pitches, pitch speed and all other sorts of information need to be shown every second of the game?

Go watch a game from the 1980’s or earlier. How did people enjoy the first 40 years of baseball telecasts with just having the game and nothing else on the screen? Quite well.

Check out a random pre-1980 baseball broadcast on Youtube to see what I mean.

3 – The damn box superimposed around home plate

With the exception of a few local broadcast outlets, most networks televising baseball have adapted their own version of a strike zone box. And it’s getting to be de rigueur instead of a special feature.

This horrible innovation that began a few years ago is an artificial rectangular box on the TV screen surrounding home plate, that supposedly identifies the strike zone and differentiates strikes from balls. Unfortunately it is in the direct line of sight of the television viewer.

The worst part about it is you can’t ignore it. Continue reading →