As IF Times

link Peaceful Occupy protest degenerates into chaos – US news – Life – msnbc.com.

We all have friends whose judgement on many things leaves a lot to be desired.  When things ultimately blow up as predicted by most, we wonder how it was possible that they couldn’t foresee the outcome that was so clear to the rest of us beforehand. 

Parents experience this firsthand when their daughter decides to run off with a young lad who aspires to be a rock star travelling the country doing small gigs, otherwise unemployed.  Other people actually are the parents of that boy.  Who could foresee that this could go wrong?  Others may be familiar with someone who needs money for an investment scheme and determines that the best way to raise it would be by betting the mortgage and milk money on 22 red in Vegas.  What could go wrong?   How about dashing into that bar in Tijuana which also houses a tattoo parlour.  What’s the worst that can happen?

These are examples perhaps of lack of good judgement, but typically this is tied to the naivete of youth.  As people become older, we can expect their judgement on most things to be more astute and therefore we see fewer middle aged people doing dumb things.  Certainly, there are glaring exceptions and the following list are very public examples of this.   From www.northeastshooters.com :

**”Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances.” — Dr. Lee DeForest, Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television

**”The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.” – -Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project

**”There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.” –Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923

**”Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” — Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

**”I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

**”I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.” — The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

**”But what is it good for?” — Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

**”640K ought to be enough for anybody.” — Bill Gates, 1981

**” This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication The device is inherently of no value to us,” — Western Union internal memo, 1876

**”The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” — David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

**”The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible,” — A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

**”I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” — Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in Gone With The Wind.

**”A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make,” — Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting Mrs. Fields’ Cookies.

**”We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out,” — Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

**”Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible,” — Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895

**”If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this,” – – Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M Post-It” Notepads.

**”Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy,” — Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

**”Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” – – Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

**”Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value,” — Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre, France ..

**”Everything that can be invented has been invented,” — Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.

**”The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required.” — Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University

**”I don’t know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn’t be a feasible business by itself.” — the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

**”Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” — Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

**”The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon,” — Sir John Eric Ericksen British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

**”There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” — Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

and of course, **” In sickness and in health as long as we both shall live.” — Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries.

As amusing as these examples are, most of them are the result of either the lack of precedence or lack of vision so we can’t entirely fault them.   However, some of the worst decisions being made today are by people in office who should know better because there is ample historical precedence.   But whether due to protracted adolescence or misguided ideology,  disasterous policies are still followed despite obvious likelihood of negative outcomes.  While many of the above examples are based on the unknown, human behaviour when it comes to mobs, is not unknown.

History is replete with examples of mobs and their expected behaviour.  Let’s just say the record is not good.  The linked article above references how “peaceful protests degenerates to chaos”.  Who ever heard of an instantly violent mob?   They always start off peacefully but then build to a violent crescendo.  The presumably wiser, saner heads who are charged with running cities who should have known better, are shocked to find that chaos and mayhem is occurring at these “peaceful” demonstrations.  The media, rather than reporting them for what they are, ie: professionally orchestrated uprisings, characterize them as representing the sentiments of the general public.  They are not.  The “occupy x city” crowd are as representative of the average person as Yogi is the average bear.  People may as well be reading Mad magazine if they think reporting by most of the media on the occupy “movement” is accurate.

Despite laughable misrepresentations by most of the media, the occupy crowd have no laudable goals.  Anarchy is the common theme that binds them, not an idealistic notion of democratic change.  The mechanism of democratic change is already available via the ballot boxes.  Ironically, it is precisely those idiots that are put into office by the protesting types that got us into much of the mess we’re all in.   Like adults always say, it’s all fun until someone loses an eye.

Rioting, tear gas, burning cars, smashed windows, general chaos…who knew?

link Cains smoking ad divides Republicans: Reuters/Ipsos poll | Reuters.

What do we do with a guy named Herman.  The funny thing is, neither party knows what to do with him.  From an unlikely post way at the back of the pack, Herman Cain is all of a sudden leading or near the lead of the potential candidates for the Republican Presidential nomination.

The Democrats don’t know what to do with him since their entire attack campaign is geared towards the presumptive front runners Romney and/or Perry.  All of a sudden a charismatic non-politician pops out of nowhere and garners the attention of a large voting segment by force of his plain spoken, common sense style.  He’s a self made man, responsible for successfully running and saving a number of big name corporations and god help them, he’s black!

The left can’t claim that Cain’s lack of political experience is a handicap since the guy they pushed into office didn’t have any either.  Cain at least held a real job and employed people rather than living comfortably off the government dole.   They can’t attack him on his race, checkmate there.   So in the meantime, they resort to the predictable, tired old standby they’ve used for ages against every dangerous Republican contender.  They’ll paint him as dumb and unhinged.  Considering that the Dems are the party of Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, that’s rich.  If one listens closely, you can hear the echoing sound from their heads whenever they speak due to all of the extra space in their cranial cavities.

Democrats have supported themselves for years by their narrative of identity politics especially when it comes to blacks.  The narrative is that without the Democrats to protect and provide for them, blacks would be helpless and disadvantaged in an oppressive society.  A guy like Herman comes along who’s done it on his own without government help and handouts, well that creates some doubt about their narrative.  And he’s a Republican to boot.  Who knows, maybe other blacks will get the same idea and pretty soon, there goes the party.  A guy like Herman is dangerous to them.

The Republicans on the other hand are so busy with their circular firing squad as they try to identify the most perfect candidate, that they don’t even see that Cain appeals to the massive amount of normal people who detest canned and coiffed candidates.  Cain’s main appeal is that regular people can identify with him the way that they can’t with the polished politicos offered up by the Republican establishment.  As of this writing, Cain doesn’t even have an organized team to address the upcoming Iowa and New Hampshire caucuses.  Horrors!  Karl Rove is in panic mode. Who is this guy?  He can’t be a serious contender, he’s not part of the establishment! He’s not doing things the way you’re supposed to.  He didn’t even have the common sense to not be shown smoking in a recent ad.

Well despite what most would expect, the recent ads showing Cain smoking didn’t turn people off.  In fact, it strangely made Cain more human, just a regular guy, not some airbrushed mannequin repeating the same canned talking points.  The guy seems genuine. So he smokes a little.  As much as most find the habit disgusting in this politically correct age, it’s refreshing to see someone not obsessed with his public image.  We see Cain at political appearances wearing a black fedora style hat, showing that he’s not the least concerned about presenting the usual airbrushed image that most politicians present these days.

The GOP had better smarten up.  All of their candidates have shortcomings in one way or another, but any of them would be more capable than the incumbent in the Oval office today.  All are very strong defenders of most conservative sensibilities, but they cannot be everything.  Instead of knocking each other for their worst  flaws, real or imagined, they’d be better off being  supportive of those that best reflect the values of the conservative crowd, which is more than half of the nation.  Conservatives have a big constituency to cover since their group covers such a wide range of opinion and thought so it’s harder for all to get behind one person.   The Dems on the other hand, only have to cover a narrow band of sensibilities, so their decision process is much simpler.   A guy like Herman comes along and he resonates with people for a reason.  He’s not politics as usual.  Everyone’s had enough of professional slicksters.  They want someone real.  To paraphrase the old Star-Kist tuna commercial, they don’t want someone real good, they want someone good and real.   Right now, that’s Herman.