If you ever bring up the subject, you’ll know I’ve been a
fan and proponent of Denon audio equipment for many years. Happily, I’m now also a dealer. For the homeowner, I’m convinced it’s the
best overall choice of A/V receiver for setting up a surround sound system.
In the late 90s I was working at a local A/V outfit, and on the odd occasion when I was working sales, I would play a particular music passage for prospective buyers through both a Denon receiver as well as the other brands they sold. The difference in sound was plain, and the key was the power supply employed by Denon. No one for whom I performed this demo ever bought anything other than a Denon.
In the late 90s I was working at a local A/V outfit, and on the odd occasion when I was working sales, I would play a particular music passage for prospective buyers through both a Denon receiver as well as the other brands they sold. The difference in sound was plain, and the key was the power supply employed by Denon. No one for whom I performed this demo ever bought anything other than a Denon.
But about 10 years ago, there was trouble in paradise. Denon entered a dubious manufacturing phase
of dividing their A/V receivers into two product lines. One was referred to as the CI line, for
Custom Installer. They were the higher
priced of the two, and followed the tradition of high quality power
supplies. The other line did not, and
the results were not pretty.
I started to notice that a surprising number of the
receivers were failing shortly into the warranty periods. One seller made the remark that they had gone
from being bullet-proof to boomerangs. I
agreed. We were both talking about the
lower line, of course, and it became routine to see a Denon receiver sitting at
my supplier’s location waiting to be returned for warranty.
Happily, Denon got its act together and rid itself of this
practice and is back to producing only the kinds of receivers that I would put
in my own house.
But what of this story? This: Although the number of receivers that failed was quite small compared to the total number sold, the number of failures crossed the line into a territory that effectively acted as a representative sample.
The end result was that most of us in the business wouldn’t sell the lower line because we figured there was a good chance that we’d be replacing it. Bottom line – there were enough bad apples to spoil the whole bunch.
Critical point: The failures were real, and because reality is what it is, that small number of failures exerted an influence beyond its numbers. It was impossible to determine ahead of time which receivers would fail. Accordingly, we correctly based our decisions on the effect of that relatively small number because not doing so would be irresponsible. Don’t forget that.
The line became identified by its failures, and we did right to protect both ourselves and the customers from the mistaken direction Denon had taken. There was nothing wrong with our attitude in this regard. Denon made a bad decision and we acted in both our and our customers’ best interest like any intelligent person would. We didn’t stop selling Denon altogether, didn’t claim the entire company was ruined or any such thing – we just went exclusively to the CI line and abandoned the lower line to die its proper death.
The point of this story is found in that thing I referred to as a representative sample. A true representative sample is a numerical subset of a group that accurately represents the characteristics of the entire group. But that’s the domain of statistics, a hard science where you have to follow the rules.
Out here in Ordinary World Land, representative samples aren’t really representative samples in that they don’t necessarily represent the whole group. Instead, the sample consists of an undefinable percentage of the whole that creates a situation where absolutely no one is surprised when a member of the group displays a behavior that created the sample in the first place. When a fellow installer told you he had to replace a Denon receiver back in the days of my story, you weren’t in the least surprised because you’d seen it too many times for it to be unusual.
But what of this story? This: Although the number of receivers that failed was quite small compared to the total number sold, the number of failures crossed the line into a territory that effectively acted as a representative sample.
The end result was that most of us in the business wouldn’t sell the lower line because we figured there was a good chance that we’d be replacing it. Bottom line – there were enough bad apples to spoil the whole bunch.
Critical point: The failures were real, and because reality is what it is, that small number of failures exerted an influence beyond its numbers. It was impossible to determine ahead of time which receivers would fail. Accordingly, we correctly based our decisions on the effect of that relatively small number because not doing so would be irresponsible. Don’t forget that.
The line became identified by its failures, and we did right to protect both ourselves and the customers from the mistaken direction Denon had taken. There was nothing wrong with our attitude in this regard. Denon made a bad decision and we acted in both our and our customers’ best interest like any intelligent person would. We didn’t stop selling Denon altogether, didn’t claim the entire company was ruined or any such thing – we just went exclusively to the CI line and abandoned the lower line to die its proper death.
The point of this story is found in that thing I referred to as a representative sample. A true representative sample is a numerical subset of a group that accurately represents the characteristics of the entire group. But that’s the domain of statistics, a hard science where you have to follow the rules.
Out here in Ordinary World Land, representative samples aren’t really representative samples in that they don’t necessarily represent the whole group. Instead, the sample consists of an undefinable percentage of the whole that creates a situation where absolutely no one is surprised when a member of the group displays a behavior that created the sample in the first place. When a fellow installer told you he had to replace a Denon receiver back in the days of my story, you weren’t in the least surprised because you’d seen it too many times for it to be unusual.
It is time for a truth with which some of you kind souls will have a real problem. I call such truths HDRs – Heavy Doses of Reality. Every normal person believes these HDRs, but most won’t publicly acknowledge them because somebody else might get their precious little feelings hurt, run to their safe space, and call them a bigot from their insulated-from-reality hidey hole where utter brainlessness rules.
So, that HDR, here it is: Blacks and Muslims are unsurprisingly and correctly defined by our real-world-adjusted representative samples.
Why, you ask in disingenuous shock? Because the situation with blacks and Muslims is identical to the Denon story. The only place it might veer somewhat is that the undefinable percentage I referred to with regard to Muslims is probably much higher.
Not having watched regular TV in quite some time, and particularly the news, I’ve no way of knowing if they still do that Crime Line thing. But back when it was a new feature, I’d hear it regularly because I was working at a TV repair shop. Here’s what I heard once – once – during that period of time: “Police are looking for two white males.” Now, am I saying that’s the only time it ever happened? Don’t be ridiculous. But I heard “Police are looking for a black male” or “Police are looking for two black males” daily. It was common knowledge, and therefore completely and rationally expected, that the great majority of times the police were looking for blacks. Why? Well, that’s because black males between the ages of 18-35 are responsible for the out-sized majority of violent crimes in American society. Of course, you could fall for the brain-dead liberal line that it’s because the police are racists so that’s why the arrests are so skewed, or because whites are holding them down, I suppose . .
But about that demographic – of that group, statistics show that only about 10% are responsible for violent crime, and again in the out-sized majority, those crimes are committed against other blacks. Not that black lives matter or anything like that . . .
To illustrate this inconvenient reality, let me draw an
imaginary scenario, and then relate an actual one.
Imaginary scenario: Suppose I blindfolded you, drove you into a neighborhood that was completely unfamiliar to you, and then removed the blindfold, whereupon you saw decrepit buildings with steel bars or gates over the windows of the businesses. You’re instantly going to assume you’re in a minority neighborhood, probably predominately black.
Now this: I didn’t create that situation, and neither did any other whites, nor am I the least bit afraid or ashamed of that reality. And you’re stuck with that reality unless you want to give whites credit for caring enough and having time enough to separate some blacks from others so that one group lives in a comfortable and well-kept mixed-race neighborhood like the one I very happily live in and the ones who live in Crack Central. And please, before you go diving headlong into Duh-Land, I know that many of the people in Crack Central would gladly leave. What I’m clearly referring to is the fact that such neighborhoods exist because of an attitude, an outlook on life, that results in exactly what you see in them. Deal with it.
Actual scenario: In the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel in 2003 here in Hampton Roads, there were a number of neighborhoods into which police, white and black, would not venture unless the need was undeniable. Why? Because of the perfectly normal realization that the chance of a violent encounter was unacceptably high in these specific neighborhoods. White and black people of routine intelligence levels don’t wander around such neighborhoods because they recognize the common reality connected to them.
Again, let me head you off before you go Bonkers for Duh-isms. Not all black neighborhoods are like this. Feel better now? You know full well what I’m talking about, so spare me the stupid and irrelevant defenses of neighborhoods that don’t fit the example.
And finally, please don’t make a fool of yourself by thinking that this whole thing reveals me as a racist that hates blacks. I feel the same about blacks as I do whites, Chinese, and people who don’t like coffee ice cream – I couldn’t care less about any of it.
The formula is quite simple: Be nice. Period.
Imaginary scenario: Suppose I blindfolded you, drove you into a neighborhood that was completely unfamiliar to you, and then removed the blindfold, whereupon you saw decrepit buildings with steel bars or gates over the windows of the businesses. You’re instantly going to assume you’re in a minority neighborhood, probably predominately black.
Now this: I didn’t create that situation, and neither did any other whites, nor am I the least bit afraid or ashamed of that reality. And you’re stuck with that reality unless you want to give whites credit for caring enough and having time enough to separate some blacks from others so that one group lives in a comfortable and well-kept mixed-race neighborhood like the one I very happily live in and the ones who live in Crack Central. And please, before you go diving headlong into Duh-Land, I know that many of the people in Crack Central would gladly leave. What I’m clearly referring to is the fact that such neighborhoods exist because of an attitude, an outlook on life, that results in exactly what you see in them. Deal with it.
Actual scenario: In the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel in 2003 here in Hampton Roads, there were a number of neighborhoods into which police, white and black, would not venture unless the need was undeniable. Why? Because of the perfectly normal realization that the chance of a violent encounter was unacceptably high in these specific neighborhoods. White and black people of routine intelligence levels don’t wander around such neighborhoods because they recognize the common reality connected to them.
Again, let me head you off before you go Bonkers for Duh-isms. Not all black neighborhoods are like this. Feel better now? You know full well what I’m talking about, so spare me the stupid and irrelevant defenses of neighborhoods that don’t fit the example.
And finally, please don’t make a fool of yourself by thinking that this whole thing reveals me as a racist that hates blacks. I feel the same about blacks as I do whites, Chinese, and people who don’t like coffee ice cream – I couldn’t care less about any of it.
The formula is quite simple: Be nice. Period.
And there’s Muslims, a situation where I have NEVER seen
such brainlessness – well, maybe Nancy Pelosi and Eleanor Clift would be
exceptions, but getting back to the Denon story – how much influence did the
receivers that didn’t fail exert on the situation? If you said none, help yourself to a
cookie. Things that act like they’re
supposed to don’t create problems that force corrective behavior. So please, let none of us make the asinine
reference to the “peaceful majority.” The peaceful majority of Muslims – assuming there
really is such a thing - is irrelevant because it isn’t systematically slaughtering
the unpeaceful minority.
We whiteys have among us a collection of disgusting people of like complexion from a pleasant little group known as Westboro Baptist Church. They are a miniscule quantity of people who occasionally crawl out from under the rocks to publicly thank God for dead American soldiers and engage in other forms of quite anti-social behavior. Unaffiliated, the church was formerly pastored by the registered Democrat Fred Phelps, who was thoughtful enough to die not too very long after his parishioners started their assault on decency. As happens so very often, its insignificant membership temporarily exerted an influence far beyond its numbers.
But notably, the rest of us white folks didn’t quietly let them carry on with their stupidity. They were regularly shut down by guys on motorcycles who looked like the kind that would demonstrate their displeasure with your behavior by ripping your eyebrows off. I like them. Point is, white folks have always had a significant percentage with a reputation for not putting up with slimy behavior. In a thoroughly unsurprising development, it was us white crackers in Britain and America that put the kibosh on slavery in our respective lands, after all. And didn’t you just love what those white Eastern Europeans did to Ceausescu?
So where is the comparable behavior among Muslims? That’s why I laugh at the stupidity of the “peaceful majority.”
If Islamists such as we see in the news were to replace the poorly executed Denon receivers, the things would set fire to entire neighborhoods and collapse the power grid across the next five states. Daily demonstrating the most disgusting behavior seen in generations, violent Muslims need but one thing from this world – extermination.
You remember I said that you couldn’t tell which receivers were going to go bad, so we didn’t buy any of them?
Yeah, well – that’s why ordinary people support not allowing any more Muslims into this country. Period. None. To do otherwise is reprehensibly irresponsible. When the so-called peaceful majority of Muslims have a 10-year record of putting down their own, we can talk.
So what is this all about?
Simple – as a white male of European decent, I am officially tendering my resignation from a position of responsibility for the behavior of the numerically small numbers of blacks and Muslims (whose numbers aren’t nearly as small as blacks relative to the whole) who insist on acting like animals - not that I ever had any responsibility in the first place. I refuse to make any excuses for them. I condemn with every ounce of energy I have what they do and what they are. I say with absolutely no regret or hesitation that should a space ship pull into orbit and scan the population for the two most violent demographics to be found here with the end result of seeing them beamed into the corona of the sun the world would be a much nicer place. I’m done with the excuses and the scams. Both of these groups have but one course of acceptable moral and intellectual behavior – start getting rid of these parasites by any means necessary. Regular people like me are not wrong to judge them according to their behavior while holding the majority of their fellows responsible for their destruction.
We whiteys have among us a collection of disgusting people of like complexion from a pleasant little group known as Westboro Baptist Church. They are a miniscule quantity of people who occasionally crawl out from under the rocks to publicly thank God for dead American soldiers and engage in other forms of quite anti-social behavior. Unaffiliated, the church was formerly pastored by the registered Democrat Fred Phelps, who was thoughtful enough to die not too very long after his parishioners started their assault on decency. As happens so very often, its insignificant membership temporarily exerted an influence far beyond its numbers.
But notably, the rest of us white folks didn’t quietly let them carry on with their stupidity. They were regularly shut down by guys on motorcycles who looked like the kind that would demonstrate their displeasure with your behavior by ripping your eyebrows off. I like them. Point is, white folks have always had a significant percentage with a reputation for not putting up with slimy behavior. In a thoroughly unsurprising development, it was us white crackers in Britain and America that put the kibosh on slavery in our respective lands, after all. And didn’t you just love what those white Eastern Europeans did to Ceausescu?
So where is the comparable behavior among Muslims? That’s why I laugh at the stupidity of the “peaceful majority.”
If Islamists such as we see in the news were to replace the poorly executed Denon receivers, the things would set fire to entire neighborhoods and collapse the power grid across the next five states. Daily demonstrating the most disgusting behavior seen in generations, violent Muslims need but one thing from this world – extermination.
You remember I said that you couldn’t tell which receivers were going to go bad, so we didn’t buy any of them?
Yeah, well – that’s why ordinary people support not allowing any more Muslims into this country. Period. None. To do otherwise is reprehensibly irresponsible. When the so-called peaceful majority of Muslims have a 10-year record of putting down their own, we can talk.
So what is this all about?
Simple – as a white male of European decent, I am officially tendering my resignation from a position of responsibility for the behavior of the numerically small numbers of blacks and Muslims (whose numbers aren’t nearly as small as blacks relative to the whole) who insist on acting like animals - not that I ever had any responsibility in the first place. I refuse to make any excuses for them. I condemn with every ounce of energy I have what they do and what they are. I say with absolutely no regret or hesitation that should a space ship pull into orbit and scan the population for the two most violent demographics to be found here with the end result of seeing them beamed into the corona of the sun the world would be a much nicer place. I’m done with the excuses and the scams. Both of these groups have but one course of acceptable moral and intellectual behavior – start getting rid of these parasites by any means necessary. Regular people like me are not wrong to judge them according to their behavior while holding the majority of their fellows responsible for their destruction.
