Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
The Declaration Of Independence Is As Important Today As It Was in 1776
—CBD
It is depressingly axiomatic that our current crop of pathetic, ahistoric, crass, rapacious, unpatriotic sub-wits in our government have no understanding the unique drive for freedom and liberty that animated our founders.
And what makes it worse is that they have no appreciation for what those men created: a template for the greatest country in the history of Man.
They think they can do better.
They are wrong.
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Read the rest at the National Archives
The list of grievances is fascinating, and the number that can be directed at our own government and its unelected bureaucratic autocracy is startling. It also illuminates the unchanging drive for power, and the wisdom of our founders to recognize it.
The last one could describe the last two Democrat presidents!
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
Sound familiar.
It is easy to dismiss the convulsions of our society as just another blip in the never-ending success of our glorious country. After all, America has survived 250 years, and the end result is absolutely amazing.
But the transportation, the technology, the communication that the United States has mostly created for the world has conspired to create vulnerabilities that are new, and we are unsure how to protect our wonderful country from the depredations of the rest of the world, and the enemies within.
Will we survive for another 250 years? That is up to us and our children and our grandchildren. I think that is the timeline for the survival of this great experiment.
Good morning, ‘rons and ‘ronettes. It’s time once again for the monthly MP4-hosted Sunday Book Thread. Dress for men, as always, is country club casual. Women are encouraged to wear their best Lilly Pulitzer:
https://tinyurl.com/8n8dd49y
So ask the barman for a cocktail, covfefe or tea and let’s get started!
‘we hold these truths to be self-evident’
By the time this is posted, I expect Independence Day will be behind us. What will happen that day? Nationwide hate-Trump riots? More “No Kings” marches? Democrat politicians of all skin hues and aspirations lecturing Americans about the inherent, inborn, unforgivable evil that is the United States? I don’t know. I do know that the 250th anniversary will be (or was) a sadder, more divisive and ultimately poorer celebration than that of 1976.
During the Bicentennial, I had the pleasure of visiting Filthadelphia, where I saw the meeting room of the Continental Congress (much smaller than that version seen in 1776) and came away with a copy of Edmund Morgan’s The Meaning of Independence, a collection of three lectures he gave in 1975 regarding Adams, Washington and Jefferson. It was the first book I had ever bought regarding the Revolution and to this day I still pick up the occasional volume that catches my eye. Allow me to mention a few:
Spies of the Revolution by Katherine and John Bakeless. My copy is from Scholastic Book Services and is a YA adaptation of their 1959 Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes. It’s a fad these days to write about Washington’s network of spies, but the Bakelesses covered that and more decades ago.
A.G. Langguth’s Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution is, IMO, probably the best one-volume history of the Revolution and one written to appeal to all reading levels, charting the course of the conflict from the Stamp Act all the way to Yorktown and beyond.
For a close look at the Declaration itself, Pauline Maier’s American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence is a must-have. She examines not only the writing of the Declaration, but its antecedents, its mirror declarations in various colonies and how, in the 19th century, the document itself was ‘sanctified.’ An appendix reprints Jefferson’s original draft, enabling you to see how and where he was improved or watered down.
Thomas Fleming’s Liberty: The American Revolution was a companion volume to the 1997 PBS series. It’s a lavishly-illustrated book which begins in the aftermath of the French and Indian War, proceeding through the various Parliamentary attempts to squeeze money from the colonies and on into war, victory and the framing of the Constitution.
And, of course, if you happen to prowl used bookshops, you might come across any one of the various American Heritage books about the Revolution, colonial settlement or American history. An excellent example is their two-volume 200 Years: A Bicentennial Illustrated History of the United States.
And I can’t finish without mentioning Westholme Publishing, who specialize in the 18th century and have a companion website, Journal of the American Revolution. I’m looking forward to the publication of City Tavern: The Founding Table by Becky Libourel Diamond.
What about you? What books captured your imagination or influenced your thinking about independence? Will our 300th anniversary be as celebratory as 1976, or are we a rusty clock, winding down to a sad, empty silence?
[A Personal Request:
My new Theda Bara novel, Ten Thousand Midnights, is at reading draft stage and I'm looking for a few people to share thoughts. If you've read my first two, you know the scene - silent star Theda Bara is an amateur detective along with her makeup artist Toby Swanson. The new book has her asked by the LA police to help solve the 1922 murder of Paramount director William Desmond Taylor.
If you're interested, email me at christopherdigrazia@gmail.com and I'll send you a word file and what I'm looking for.]
The 96-bit width is actually a natural result of DDR6 architecture, which instead of having two 32-bit subchannels (each with optional ECC) is broken down into four 24-bit channels (each comprised of two 12-bit subchannels) with extra ECC bits coming from a multi-word burst. If you read twelve 12-bit words from memory, for example, you get four 32-bit words plus 16 bits of error-correcting data.
Which means that while all DDR5 memory has on-die ECC, all DDR6 memory has both on-die and end-to-end ECC.
And 50% more bandwidth. Actually more than that in time, as DDR6 will support higher speeds than DDR5.
Budget phones are expected to disappear for at least a couple of years as memory prices simply push them out of the market. If manufacturers have to spend $200 for 8GB of RAM, saving $5 on the CPU makes no sense.
The denizens there were properly scornful of a Google ad showing the Founding Fathers using Gemini to draft the Declaration of Independence.
They might hate America, but they hate AI even more.
Speaking of which, Grok has started illustrating answers to questions... Some of the time. Helpful - well, not actually helpful, but notable - in illustrating a geodesic through a four dimensional planetary structure.
Thankfully it didn't illustrate the question I posed about the plausibility of decapitating an Amphicyonid with a single sword blow.
(I am probably on a list somewhere simply titled "Huh?")
Not available in the US, as the Chinese memory makers CXMT and YMTC are both under sanctions. I actually have a couple of YMTC SSDs I bought early this year, as they are not under sanctions here in Australia, and they were the last models to increase in price.
The link to this article posed it as a question so I was planning to hit it with an inverse Betteridge's Law, but the article simply states it as fact, with good reason.
Welcome to Club ONT - a revolutionary collaboration of The Club's "founding fathers", The Disco, The Dino, and The Doggo. That's right - even the prodigal pooch couldn't stay away from our USA-250 celebration!
We built this place for you so you can have some fun. Come in in, grab a drink or 3. Keep it light and friendly. Jerks need not enter the premises. No loyal British subjects of the king are allowed either! Club ONT is for citizens, not subjects.
Why did Paul Revere ride his horse from Boston to Lexington? It was too heavy to carry.
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So it's July 4th night, and all of the dead presidents are gathered around a campfire for a party. They're drinking, eating, and having a good time when President Washington puts President Lincoln on the spot.
"Hey, Lincoln, do your thing!" asks Washington.
"What thing?" Lincoln asks. "What is it?"
"Lincoln, do the thing!" Washington says. The speech, address or whatever! "You know what I'm talking about!"
"Oh, yeah, the speech," Lincoln says. That thing, yes. I'm afraid I can't. "I can't recall the words."
"What do you mean you can't remember the words?" exclaimed Washington. "You've given the speech a million times! You've got that like burned in your brain, right?!"
Lincoln says, "Well, yeah, normally, sure, I've got it memorized, but that was four s'mores and seven beers ago!"
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Drink of the Night
A red, white, and blue layered cocktail for USA-250? Of course!
Here's how to make it
I want to make this drink called the USA Lemonade. Looks pretty simple. All you'll need is:
Here's what you'll need: 1 oz Grenadine 4 oz lemonade 1 oz blue curacao 1.5 oz vodka Ice
Who still has their Bicentennial mug, T-shirt, pin, button, commemorative plate... or harmonica?
Is it proudly displayed? Tucked away in the attic? Hidden in a box with the avocado-green Tupperware and other "too sentimental to toss" treasures?
Hit the comments if you've held onto a Bicentennial keepsake or two.
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Check out this cool poster from our good friend and barkeep, JQ!
Hopefully JQ will take a break from pouring drinks and explain how this came into her possession and where she currently has it displayed.
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Yes... one of the D's still has a Bicentennial harmonica. It's safely tucked away in a home office desk drawer, just waiting for a Yankee Doodle rendition.
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And here's one from The Disco's personal collection. A well cared for piece of Bicentennial drinkware!
[Disco says: This belonged to my grandfather, was given to my mom when she and my dad bought a house with a bar in the basement, then I took it several years ago when my mom sold that house. It has become my favorite glass for sipping bourbon.]
Grok says it is a "sour cream" tumbler made by Hazel Atlas Glass Company.
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So - what do you still have? And what have you acquired as a collectible for USA-250?
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Club ONT Department of Flyover Country
4 cents per acre. Jefferson and that land purchase. Very casual reading at the link - plenty of other details to parse in the comment section.
By the time Monroe arrived in Paris on April 12, 1803, the French had made a stunning offer to Livingston. For various reasons, Napoleon had decided to abandon his plans for Louisiana, and he had Prime Minister Talleyrand offer not just New Orleans but the entire territory to the United States for $15 million. Monroe and Livingston agreed to the purchase, and they signed a treaty with France on April 30, 1803.
How is that Greenland thing coming along?
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Club ONT Department of Patriotic Paint Jobs and Styling
Hurst Performance had a thriving business as a specialty car builder for major automakers in the late 1960s, producing special high-performance models for Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Plymouth, and others, but the AMC Hurst SC/Rambler is undoubtedly one of the most visually distinctive vehicles that emerged from these collaborations.
During the nation's bicentennial celebration in 1976, automakers introduced special edition cars and trucks honoring America's 200th anniversary, while Kenworth answered the call with one of the most distinctive heavy-duty trucks it had ever produced.
Known as the VIT 200, the limited-production package transformed the company's flagship W900 conventional into a patriotic showpiece through a red, white, and blue paint scheme, special trim, commemorative badging, and the introduction of Kenworth's groundbreaking Aerodyne raised-roof sleeper.
Club ONT Disclaimer: Side effects may include wild flag waving, excessive potato salad consumption, Roman Candle duels, and convincing yourself a second or third hot dog is a good idea. Professional fireworks should be left to professionals. Uncle Billy is not a professional fireworks technician, no matter what he says - and neither are you Morons.
This ONT is fueled by charcoal, confidence, and mosquitoes. No Founding Fathers were consulted in the planning of these festivities, though we're reasonably certain they'd have questions.
Sparklers are not lightsabers. Lawn chairs and coolers are not defensive positions. The bald eagle is watching all of you. America has thrived for 250 years. Don't be the reason it doesn't survive the weekend.
Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: The Most Pro-American Movies of the 21st Century (to date)
—Open Blogger
On this 250th Independence Day, I thought it would be fun to revisit three films that came out in the 21st century that reflected the most positively on this great and glorious nation. There's a thread running through all this, which is probably really obvious. If you're not drunk, it'll probably leap out like a firework with a surprisingly short fuse.
You don't even have to be a great detctive to figure this one out.
Released widely in the spring of 2006, this Roger Donaldson (Species, Dante's Peak) biopic tells the story of Burt Munro, a kiwi who (on hearing he has serious heart disease and little time left) mortgages his house and grabs a ship (he cooks and cleans to earn his passage) to Long Beach, California with an idea of getting to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to race his Indian (a motorcycle made in Springfield, Massachusetts) and break the world land speed record.
After a rough start in Los Angeles, he's helped out by Tina, a friendly transvestite (Chris Williams, brother of Vanessa, "Dwight" from Dodgeball), buys a junker from Fernando (Paul Rodriguez), who accepts repayment in the form of quick tune-ups, is saved from a breakdown by Jake (a Native American played by Saginaw Grant of the Ridiculous 6), has a one-night stand with Ada (Diane Ladd) and finally makes it to the Flats where he is immediately disqualified before he can enter for not registering on time and for having a motorcycle that's essentially hand-made on the cheap with no safety devices.
The obscure Kiwi is saved through the bold actions of a wired-in white guy who browbeats the officials into letting Burt race where he breaks the speed of sound, then the speed of light, and crashes into the 8th Dimensions to fight Lectroids with Buckaroo Banzai.
OK, maybe not that last part.
But Walton Goggins is in it. So it's got that going for it. (Which is nice.)
Actually, maybe not any of it: In real life Munro knew exactly what he was doing, had no time for charming side-quests, wasn't in poor health particularly, and was legendary at the Flats.
Great movie, though. Hopkins performance was true enough to make the Munro family cry. Composer J. Peter Robinson ("Charmed", Wayne's World) channels Thomas Newman and other turn-of-the-century movie composers effectively. The cinematography is gorgeous and the color-coding is spot on. Mornings in New Zealand are pastoral blue, the roads in America are amber-waves-of-grain, and the salt flats are white hot.
Some of this doesn't play the same in 2026. The aggressively diverse encounters Burt has stick out now in a way they didn't twenty years ago. Even though the intention here is to showcase Burt's general laid back attitude, in today's world it can feel overengineered.
Still, fine film. Wherever Burt goes, there's an American who wants to help.
Just don't call him a POHMie.
Schultze Gets The Blues
An old German salt-miner retires and finds himself with nothing to do but play polkas and cough ominously. One day, while avoiding a report on lung cancer on the radio, he stumbles across zydeco music which, in true Teutonic fashion, he shrugs off. But then, shocka: He turns back to it, listens to it for a while, picks up his accordion and plays it by ear.
The dance hall scenes are adorable. The people can't stop looking at the camera.
This becomes a kind of obsession—and you know I love movies about obsessed guys, right?—and he decides to try to raise the money to go to the swamps of America where the music is made. This involves a lot of low paying jobs to cover the ever-increasing fare.
His playing gets negative reactions from most of the townsfolk, but a core group really enjoys it, and because Schultze's a likable guy, they manage to get Schultze to represent them at the traditional German music festival in their sister city in Texas.
So it's an hour into the movie before we get to America, but it looms as a presence throughout. Schultze's quarrelsome friends (one Prussian, the other Saxon) talk about "the Yanks" dismissively, but they envy Schultze and his escape to the New World. They presume he's getting rich and famous and probably lucky and he'll forget all about them. The Americans are nice, they concede.
Schultze, after the traditional music conference, gets himself a rundown houseboat to sail into the swamps to find the home of zydeco. All along the way he encounters people who are eager to help him out, offering guidance, resources, dancing, food, all around a loose theme of "You like music? I like music! We should hang out!" And this when Schultze can barely say "music".
I can (and someday might) do an extensive post on how this film was shot. Each sequence is: The camera is set down, often at a medium-long distance, and the action plays out in front of it. It never moves. Even when attached to a vehicle, it stays fixed staring back at the passengers. At 48 minutes, it swivels about 90 degrees—from Schultze and his friends to the mysterious and sexy Lisa, a waitress who performs an impromptu Flamenco dance to dramatize unplugging the newfangled electronic slot machine.
It's got none of the slick camera movement of Indian and there's no color correction or enhancement. When Lisa does her Flamenco dance, she is wearing a drab tan skirt and dark brown sweater. There are elements of Tati here, and a Wes-Anderson-without-the-twee sense of humor that makes me laugh to beat the band. And it makes me want to take a crummy houseboat into the swamps of Louisiana.
This is apparently a genre called "European Deadpan".
Detective Chinatown 2
At the opposite end from these earlier films is Detective Chinatown 2. I did a full review when I saw it the first time, but it's interesting to revisit it now after the coof swallowed Detective Chinatown 3 and its sequel Detective Chinatown 1900 didn't get an American release either. (There is a spin-off television series of the original movie called "Detective Chinatown". There's also a spin-off series of this movie called, naturally, "Detective Chinatown 2". They do not feature the actors from the movies, nor do they feature the main detective from the movies, but a different actor plays the comic sidekick, who I guess is the real catalyst for the stories. They are not comedies, and I don't understand Asian television.)
While World's Fastest Indian is a big-budget, carefully constructed Hollywood fantasy, and Schultze Gets The Blues is practically cinema verité when it gets to America (the director just dropped actor Horst Krause into situations with whoever was there, and Krause didn't speak much English), DC2 is just trying like crazy to make you laugh and feel good.
It reminds me of Mel Brooks or Benny Hill. There are mobs chasing the heroes through the streets of New York, tough motorcycle gangs with a romantic streak, sassy Chinese bureaucrats, cartoonishly broad racial stereotypes, and an undercover scene where our three heroes dress in nurse drag.
Subtlety is not the watchword here.
New York City in DC2 is like Paris in Amelie: There's no sign of graffiti, dog droppings, vagrants—even the crime is stylish and in good fun. When the boys go to a school to check out the number one suspects, all of a sudden the walls are completely plastered with the most aesthetic graffiti imaginable. (Set deisgn!)
Even though there's a shockingly grim set of crimes underneath it all, it's done with the kind of tone-switching the Asians do (on the whole) way better than the West. The final chase scene is reminiscent of Ferris Beuller's Day Off, as the three heroes on the lam rush to stop a grisly murder, riding in a horse-drawn carriage and leading their pursuers in an impromptu parade, while Taylor Swift's "Welcome To New York" plays.
It's so utterly un-PC, it's one of the best times I've had in a theater in ten years.
Yes, this is also how I do stealth missions.
American Exceptionalism
The common thread between all three movies, if you haven't picked it up, is that all three are based around the perspectives of foreigners of this great land of ours. If we look at @FreddieLa7's adventures, among many similar cases, we find that not only are these foreigners' views accurate, they're understated if anything.
While awful things happen every day, we are overly focused on them. The fact is, a country like this doesn't just happen: It exists because every day, ordinary people go out of their way to help others. Part of this is our tremendous affluence. But American hospitality goes back to Plymouth Rock. It is perhaps our greatest inheritance.
Sometimes it takes an outsider to remind us of that.
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) is feeling explosive. It spun and spun and landed on a fireworks theme for this Hobby Thread.
Fireworks are not exclusively an American thing. Other countries certainly have fireworks traditions, but seems like America embraces fireworks as an integral part of its culture. Fireworks are 'murica.
It is because we reject the paternalistic instinct to abstain from anything that might involve risk? Does the feint whiff of danger make fireworks irresistible? Is it because Americans have space to blow things up? Is it because we like fire and explosions? Is it because we have a fascination with flight and space, so we like sending things into the air to put on a show? Is it because fireworks are democratized in a sense - accessible to individual people and not restricted to "official" displays?
Dunno. The emergency rooms of the nation can testify that fireworks present peril for the unwary. Not all fireworks, however, inherently flirt with disaster. Sparklers? Snakes? Fun for the whole family!
What fireworks are your favorites? Have you stocked up for the holiday? Have you ever made your own? What large scale displays are memorable? Do you have childhood memories of fireworks?
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Firework delivery vehicle:
Not those fireworks? Oh well... Never mind (but I've been waiting to use the photo).
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What are you hobbying?
The thread is not limited to to the theme. Anything (legal) you are hobbying is welcome. Even if the theme does not speak to you, you might learn something. If not, find something else or offer something else relating to hobbying. If all of that fails, just check in and say hello.
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Leave politics and religion to threads elsewhere (unless your hobby is building or restoring churches). Pants are optional. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.
Play nice and do not be rude. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
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Are you wise in the ways of Zambelli?
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Time for science:
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Flying a drone through a fireworks show:
Don't try this at home.
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How does a synchronized fireworks show come together? Glad you asked.
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There are many videos across the interweb of stupid people doing stupid things with fireworks. Those will not be appearing in this content. But... was anyone in San Diego in 2012 when all the fireworks were set off within 15 seconds?
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Sydney's New Year's fireworks show on the bridge is one of the biggest each year:
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Check out the Nagaoka Fireworks festival in Japan each August:
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Drone shows are a related but separate concept. I was going to leave them out, but "explosive laden quadcopter" earned a spot in the content.
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The scale modelers of the group that make race cars should love this:
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Did some of the flyover activity yesterday pass low and slow above TRex HQ? Yes. Yes it did. It did not suck.
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an flight simulator theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
Notable comments from last week:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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Reminder: if you put links in the comments, use a URL shortener and describe what you're linking to. Failing to do either or both makes you barrel-eligible. Don't make people click to find out what you're linking.
Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.
Worried about the safety of your pets around fireworks? We have already had two nights of fireworks in the neighborhood and our remaining little dog seems to be okay as long as he is indoors. Not like some of our other dogs, the biggest of whom hid in the bathtub in the only room in the house without a window.
Any tips for helping our furry or feathered friends?
Here's another tip:
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Meet The PetMorons
We are missing photos for some PetMorons for which we have descriptions! Time to get some pets to pose! If I missed any, let me know.
On the home front, we had a tiny kitty show up and shoulder its way among the older kittens who were presented by their mama not long ago. I need to take photos of them, too!
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PetMoron Adjacent Animals
Encountered by Members of The Horde
A bit late for today's garden thread, but this afternoon my wife took a few photos of a robin in our driveway killing and eating a DeKay's brown snake! They're pretty small, so I guess it's not that different from a big earthworm?
Intrepid Liaison/Admiral Ackbar, June 20
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Amazing photos!
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Intrepid Liaison/Admiral Ackbar, July 3, from Hawaii
I have not managed to acquire many quality photos of the islands diverse fauna yet, and some of my best involve, of all things, feral chickens, which freely roam the island, including the streets of Honolulu.
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Hawaii
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Thank you for sharing your pets and animal photos and stories with us today.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
I closed the comments on that post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway. Been considering a pet spider since last week?
Some are not as colorful as last week's specimens but can be distinctive.
Happy Independence Day! I think the Cleome flowers above sort of resemble fireworks.
Hi KT!
The sunflowers are growing so tall in this heat. The one below is way above my head and is almost ready to bloom although the flowers will be very hard to see without a ladder
Other summer flowers are just now blooming. The cleome or spider flowers are something I started from seed this spring.
The bee balm is full of bees, as advertised
The gray headed cone flowers have just started to bloom. Yellow finches love them!
Hope you have a wonderful Independence Day!
Mrs. Leggy
Well, the birds and bees are loving your yard! Can't wait for those big sunflowers!
Intrepid Liaison/Admiral Ackbar and his wife have moved to Hawaii, and send us a recipe idea to remind us of where they are:
As a 100% pureblooded cracker, let me offer everyone a friendly, culturally-appropriated "aloha" now that I'm fully moved and integrated on these conquered isles. . .
We will be posting many of their photos in the future, but for today, "a culinary abomination guaranteed to traumatize CBD's food thread (and give diabetes to anyone even gazing upon it)"
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Hi,
I have had this strawberry plant for 3 yrs now. It produces smaller berries but sweet ones. I would like to know, do I cut off the stems where the berries grew or leave them? I can't remember them being so strong or apparent in the last couple of years?
Thank you for a wonderful gardening thread.
Sidney
Are these regular strawberries, alpine or wild strawberries?
Any cultivation instruction from those with experience?
FOODS FROM THE AMERICAS
Growing corn this year? How about popcorn? What is your favorite type?
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I keep imagining how someone one day pulled this out of the ground and had the idea to eat it
eu fico imaginando como alguém um dia tirou isso da terra e teve a ideia de comer pic.twitter.com/NkLgWgmISL
— out of context brazil (@oocbrazill) July 3, 2026
Are you a fan?
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Landscapes
From George V:
A few days ago the sunny humid day brought some pop-up showers and thunderstorms in the late afternoon to our home in southeast Michigan. With the sun low in the sky we were treated to magnificent sun showers as the storms pulled away. I was in our sun room out back watching it rain and as the last storm moved out it left a little rainbow that just spanned our back yard. I ran inside as quick as I could to get my phone. I was able to get a picture through our family room window just before it faded away. It was truly wonderful to see, and felt sort of like a blessing.
W0w. What a great thing!
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"The countryside is not a slice of untilled nature. It is a human institution built over centuries in the image of the people who made it."
I was just a kid. I wore an Uncle Sam costume my mom made, and my sister was Lady Liberty, complete with torch. My dad helped me rig up this old heavy wood-sided cart, and I painted each side with American flags. The cart was on hard rubber casters and didn’t move too good, but I…
— William M Briggs - Statistician to the Stars! (@FamedCelebrity) July 2, 2026
I remember community celebrations on ordinary Independence Days, too. How about you?
In particular, a person who will remain nameless here (with whom I had gone to a community program and who was featured on that program) accidentally stepped off the stage into a tub of watermelons at the park. Memorable!
The Cherokee Indians, allied with the British, launch a massive attack all along the western frontier, from Virginia to Georgia, against Patriot-held villages.
The 250th has once again brought the Declaration back into view, and much good can come of that fact, if we are willing and able to embrace it fully, courageously, with a willingness to hear what it is telling us. Let me try to suggest in what follows some of the ways the Declaration can be used as a tool to correct, reorient, and sharpen our sense of what is foundational to our way of life. Some of this work will involve correcting inaccurate notions of what the Declaration actually said.
First of all, it is vitally important to remember that the Declaration began by referring to the colonists for whom it spoke as a “people,” who were “entitled” to a “separate and equal status” by the laws of nature and “Nature’s God.” Those words formed the basis for all that follows. It was the “peoplehood” of the Americans, their sense of belonging together in their own separate land, that formed the basis for their declaring their independence. It did not come from their acceptance of some misty notion of America as “an idea” whose time has come, and which happens to have touched down from the heavens first in this particular place.
That the Declaration has universal implications, and has found favor all over the world as one of the great charters of human liberty, is certainly true; but it does not change the immediate context in which the Declaration emerged: as an expression of an important moment of self-recognition in the life of this particular political community. With the Declaration we declared ourselves to ourselves, proposing that we were now a distinct people among the peoples of the earth. “Something we were withholding made us weak,” wrote Robert Frost, “Until we found out that it was ourselves / We were withholding from our land of living.” The Declaration laid a foundation for the new thing that we were becoming. It was a declaration grounded in national solidarity, in the right of a people to define themselves and govern themselves.
After you read (or listen to) this piece, you might want to read Buck Throckmorton's Morning Rant from yesterday again, and listen to the music at the end. The rant also suggests the right of a people to define themselves and govern themselves. And the rant gives meaning to the music.
* * * * *
Weekend
Powerline has some good posts for the weekend, including their annual post on the address by Calvin Coolidge celebrating the 150 anniversary. The address features the Declaration of Independence.
Move over Sydney Sweeney: America has a new heroine perfectly fitted to the July 4 semiquincentennial today: She is Sophie Cunningham, Sophie being an adaptation of sophia, the ancient Greek word for wisdom. And sort of like Helen of Troy, our Sophie has launched a thousand memes. So as we celebrate today the sophia of our founding, let Sophie help point the way!
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over (Rulz for those of you in Bunker Hill)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate away.
2) Some people need to be reminded, be nice. Be kind.
3) Running with sharp objects takes away from the concentration required to detonate the fireworks.
4) Have a wonderful Independence Day celebration. Happy Birthday America!!!!
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
4/3 – Teresa in Fort Worth posted an update. Her chemo seems to be holding things steady for now. Unfortunately, as she is receiving a steroid, she has gained about 25 pounds. Her blood sugar has also jumped up about 40 points (which only happens when she is on steroids).
6/1 Update – Teresa had a CT scan and has seen the surgeon. Everything looks good/stable. There are no new tumors and the ones that are there have pretty much stayed the same or shrunk. No metastises seen. Additional good news is that she can stay on the current medication, and just alternate it with other meds. She continues to respond extremely well to the protocols. She sends her gratitude for each and every prayer.
6/19 – Teresa in Fort Worth sent an update. Her cancer marker numbers continue to go down; hopefully that means everything is working! In other news, she has started working on another stocking, this time for her grandson, who will be implanted soon via IVF. Prayers for a successful procedure and pregnancy would be greatly appreciated!
5/16 – Tonypete asked for prayers for Jane who is dying of breast cancer, and for Cheri who is in jail (again) for drug related crimes.
6/13 Update – Jane and her husband have sold their home and have moved back to Green Bay, to be with family when she dies.
5/20 – D gave an update on his wife Susan and her continued battle with cancer. Her cancer markers are still headed in the right direction. She is on a new antibiotic, and it is causing some side effects, but it is keeping her out of another surgery, so that is a win. Thanks again to everyone for their prayers. May 1 marked one year since they found out about the cancer, and Susan is doing so well.
6/24 Update – Everything is going well. The chemo seems to be working, but it’s very hard. The prayers help, so please keep praying for them.
5/23 – I used to have a Different Nic could use some prayers as he waits for the results of a biopsy of a mass on his prostate.
6/2 Update – I used to have a Different Nic sent in an update. He has been diagnosed with risk group 2 prostate cancer. It appears to be localized to the prostate but this will be verified via another scan. He has doctor appointments lined up for the next month or so before he starts treatment.
6/23 Update – The latest update is that he has stage 2, “unfavorable intermediate”, which he notes is an awful name, but what it means is, it is in the middle, but bad enough that they want to treat it. It’s more aggressive than previously thought. He is at the point where he has to decide on treatment options, which means choosing which set of pretty unfortunate side effects he prefers.
5/26 – Doof posted a request for prayers for his mom. She is back in the hospital. She is very weak from one or more infections, and is sleeping a lot. She isn’t really talking when she is alert for a few minutes.
6/14 Update – Doof’s mother passed away.
5/29 – Bulg requested prayers for his sister, her husband, their four children, and the rest of the family as his sister is dying. She is in palliative care in the hospital, with a lot of blood clots, and is not expected to last long.
6/14 Update – Bulg’s sister passed away on 6/14. They all could use prayers of comfort.
6/9 – “A” requested prayers for a long-time friend now suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, who just fell and broke his hip. He came out of the anesthetic really confused. His wife and family also need prayers of support and strength to help him.
6/13 – Dash my lace wings asked for prayers for a friend named Lisa, who was diagnosed with liver duct cancer. She has been in the hospital for a couple of weeks and is afraid she will never leave.
6/20 Update – Lisa has been allowed to go home for hospice care. Cancer has metastasized throughout her body; this looks like the end for her.
6/27 Update – Lisa passed on 6/22, at home, in the presence of family. Thank you for your prayers.
6/13 – Tonypete requested prayers for an acquaintance (B), who has destroyed every relationship she has ever been a part of and spreads hate and torment to everyone around her.
6/18 – buzzion asked for prayers for a friend named Christina, who has struggled with drug addiction and is in jail again. Buzzion prays that this really is rock bottom and a true wake-up call for her – even if it requires her to stay in jail.
6/29 Update – Christina’s family bonded her out of jail and she has checked into a rehab facility. Please pray that she gets the help she needs.
6/20 – bluebell gave an update on grammie Winger. Grammie had some major surgery related to her cancer in March and is pretty much housebound. She said she isn’t keeping up on news since her diagnosis; she doesn’t have the energy. She said she thinks of her grey-box friends often with fondness. Please keep praying for her. Your prayers are a source of great comfort to her.
6/27 Update – grammie winger requested bluebell to let the Horde know that she is hospitalized again, with sepsis, and cannot eat or walk. She is very tired and cannot speak for long. She is being fed by tube. They don’t know how long she will be hospitalized or where she will go after (rehab, hospice, etc.). Bluebell has a mailing address for grammie, so please contact bluebell to send a card or note to grammie winger. Please pray for her, that her suffering will be eased, and pray for her family, who are suffering along with her.
6/20 – Polliwog the ‘Ette said that prayers for Inspector would be much appreciated. Inspector is still in the hospital. They are working on getting his strength up so it’s safe for him to go home. He is more alert and focused than when he was admitted, and he has been able to eat multiple full meals, which is an improvement and will help him continue to improve.
6/21 – B posted a request for prayers. He said that, due to his own shortcomings, and a moment of madness 6 years ago, B has been estranged from his two sons (age 41 and 36). He has tried to reach out and apologize to them over the past 6 years, to no avail. B asked the Horde to pray for their hearts to open, to allow him to properly apologize, and try to be the father he should have been. The boys are losing their mother to early-onset Alzheimers, and B needs them to know that he’s a better person today than he was then, and he can be counted on.
6/27 – Tom Servo posted prayers of thanks to God that his 38 year-old daughter, who was released from a psych hospital this week after a particularly bad breakdown. She has 2 children, which she does not have custody of, but she still sees, and they are wonderful. She has received more professional care, and it appears to have helped quite a bit. She has new medication and a new commitment to living in a way that will keep her from making a return trip to the hospital.
6/27 – George V sent his thanks to the Horde for their prayers. We had prayed for his wife in May, when she had a heart valve replacement, and there were indications of problems in her lymph nodes. She received the biopsy results, and both came back negative for cancer! Thank God for his goodness!
6/27 – “A” sent thanks for the prayers for a family friend, who is at home recovering with the family and doing much better. “A” has an additional request for long-time friends (J and S) who are in the midst of intense family problems and requesting healing, peace, repentance, and restoration in the family.
7/3- Isophrone Blog requests prayers for his parents, they are both elderly and in failing health.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
Allegedly. BLERK stands for "Big Last-Level Cache" and is Intel's answer to AMD's X3D parts. 65W stands for, probably, about 150W. (AMD's 65W parts use 89W peak, for comparison.)
It's a compact system measuring 8"x8"x3", and features Radeon 7600 XT graphics (a little faster than the Steam Machine's 7600M), and a Ryzen 7940HX CPU, which is dramatically faster than the semi-custom processor in the Steam Machine.
What it doesn't have is any memory (apart from the 8GB on the graphics card) or storage. Well, I assume it's 8GB; I doubt they've included a 16GB card.
A dog was found dying on the side of the road with two broken legs (due to being hit by a car). A woman rescues her and names her Faith and Faith will walk again.
Cute story about a couple whose dog died -- but then a neighbor's dog, who apparently wasn't well-loved, began digging under the fence to visit the other couple.
Oh: And anti-MAGA bullies -- trantifa types -- are ending up in jail over their retarded Droog hyperviolence.
I linked this before: An angry Karen has road rage and physically assaults a man, and then discovers why, historically, women have generally not physically assaulted men.
I didn't like Pete Holmes superhero parody stuff because I'm a self-hating nerd who hates when people pander to me with nerdy shit I'm supposed to like.
But then I watched his great impression of Bale Batman and was won over.
Here are his original "Badman" sketches. Most of them are so-so, but there are two must watches. The one at the beginning of that series shows Batman trying out a lot of bad voices, including celebrity impressions, as his "Bat-Voice."
The other great one I linked a few months ago -- it's the climax of The Dark Knight Rises, and Talia al-Ghul wants to explain her evil plot to him, but Batman just wants to keep bragging that he banged her.
The best ones are Cyborg (despite how lame that character is), "the Batman," and Superman. The Joker one is okay. The Aquaman one is lame, as is the Wonder Woman one.
But for the outtakes, the Wonder Woman one is the best. They really left all their best jokes on the cutting room floor, maybe because they kept laughing at them. Other good outtakes ones include Cyborg again (which has a joke I guess they considered too dark and disturbing for the official video), Superman, and "The Batman."
You might want to watch the Wonder Woman video, as lame as it is, just as a set-up for the very funny outtakes video. Batman is #Based. "It's amazing I haven't gotten canceled yet," he says.
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click It happened one summer, it happened one time
It happened forever, for a short time
A place for a moment, an end to dream
Forever I loved you, forever it seemed
One summer never ends, one summer never began
It keeps me standing still, it takes all my will
An Update about Grammie Winger: She is doing poorly...she is in the hospital and is having a tough go of it. She would love to hear from you folks, so anyone who would like to contact her is welcome to her address! Please contact Bluebell at moroncookbook@gmail.com for her contact info. (I expect her local post office to be furious with us!) [CBD]
Podcast: Sefton and CBD commiserate about the NYC primaries and whether the contagion will spread, J.D. Vance is becoming a cypher, Texas Antifa gets a wake-up call, and more!
NEW: Just heard something extraordinary from a former White House official who worked with former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in Trump45's NSC: "McMaster had weekly phone calls with George Soros. We have no idea why." Neither could be reached for comment.
