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 cutting edge of cooking is usually found at high-end restaurants that have the wherewithal to experiment with new techniques and ingredients, and have an audience that is willing to pay for it. Those kitchens are also always trying new technology, or at least technology that is made accessible to thehier kitchens. I doubt any three star restaurants have SMRs (Small Modular Reactor), but they have liquid nitrogen systems and freeze-drying equipment and aerosolizing machines and all sort of stuff that the home cook or even most other restaurants don't bother with or can't afford.
Is that stuff fun? Sure! Is it something I want in my kitchen? Absolutely not. But some variation of those techniques and equipment eventually trickles down into the typical restaurant kitchen, and then into the home cook's cabinets. Sous Vide equipment is a good example. 20 years ago it was confined to the top restaurants. Now? You can buy a Sous Vide wand for $50.
The dish up top is a great example too. It is a simple dish of tomatoes and mozzarella, with a couple of flourishes that elevate it without making it fussy. It's called: Tartare de Tomate Coeur de Boeuf, Soupe Froide de Tomate – Ananas, Espuma de Mozzarella, Basilic et Olives Taggiasche, which is a mouthful! But the "espuma" part is the kicker. They took a rarified technique from a big fancy kitchen, and toned it down for what they are...an excellent neighborhood restaurant that makes delicious and interesting food.
It's just Mozzarella that has been whipped so it is very light. Nothing like the insanely wispy foams at three-star restaurants that seem to float away from the dish, and that is a good thing, because there is enough substance to it to make it a very pleasing dish without it being a massive and rich first course.
What's the point? Just that the weird molecular gastronomy and experimental stuff coming out of a few kitchens often makes it to neighborhood restaurants, and it improves those kitchens by giving them interesting options without having to break the bank.
Of course my main course was "Blanquette de Veau," a classic dish whose recipe probably hasn't changed in 400 years!
That's an espresso from a Starbucks in Paris. Why did I buy an espresso at Starbucks? Because their bathrooms are accessible, and while I was waiting I figured I would get a coffee.
And it was unbelievably bad. So bad that I, the most parsimonious Moron on earth, tossed it after I documented its horror.
You can get an espresso almost literally anywhere in Paris, or France: Every cafe, every restaurant, every street food joint, every "tabac" where you can buy cigarettes, candy, and condoms along with your espresso. Gas stations too!
And they are at the very least good. And sometimes great! But they all know how to make it and keep their machines clean.
Except, apparently, for Starbucks. How they can screw up a drink that the entire country knows how to make is beyond me. Oh, I could guess...Corporate arrogance that the mediocre espresso they make in America is "good enough," but I really don't care enough to ponder it much past, "Wow...Starbucks s*cks!"
Yes, I drowned my anger and disgust by walking another 100 yards (that's 91.44 meters in Euro-kickball speak) to the nearest cafe and ordering an excellent espresso.
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Yes...it's a holiday weekend, so brevity is the theme! Have a wonderful Labor Day, and cook something tasty!
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The great garlic experiment of 2025-2026 was a resounding...meh. Send all of your excellent home-grown garlic to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
About the Bourbon Bubble...I think it has burst, but the category is also suffering from the inflation that affected everything else (Thanks Biden!). I think the sweet spot is still $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.
The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!
To the extent that I am aware of her, I find Miley Cyrus to be distasteful, for all of the usual reasons: Hollywood pomposity, celebrity promiscuity, tattoos and piercings, aggressive hints of post-modern sexuality...all typical stuff.
But!
This is an absolutely spectacular version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene," and I have a hard time disliking someone who can do such a good job on this song.
Being confined to a wheelchair is a difficult proposition for even the most self-reliant and strong-willed people.
Here is a list of issues that I culled from the internet. They don't seem very pleasant, and leading any semblance of a full life with an injury such as this requires a fair amount of assistance, regular medical care, physical therapy, and undoubtedly psychological support, whether from formal providers or close friends and family.
Complete paralysis of both legs
Loss of sensation below approximately the mid-chest
Normal arm and hand function
Loss of voluntary bladder and bowel control
Sexual dysfunction
Initially flaccid, areflexic legs (spinal shock)
Later development of spasticity and increased reflexes
Loss of normal sweating and temperature regulation below the injury
Impaired trunk and postural control
Autonomic dysfunction, including abnormal blood-pressure and heart-rate responses
Risk of autonomic dysreflexia with injuries at or above T6
That is not to say that it can't be done. There are far too many successful, well adjusted people in wheelchairs to assume that it is impossible.
In college I roomed with several students in wheelchairs, and their injuries ranged from very low on the spine, to so high up that one required assistance breathing. They dealt with their injuries and their lives just like everyone else. It was a continuum, with a few who were amazingly independent and charged through the days, to one who was a passive slug who demanded that others do everything for him. So...pretty much like all of humanity!
Why do I mention this? Well, there is a woman in the news with a total transection at T5-T6, and I wonder whether there might be some justice in her future, even if it might not come from our legal system.
Sunday Morning Book Thread - 8-30-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (pumpkin spice latte not included). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...(Oooh! Shiny!)
So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
About a week and a half ago, I had urgent need of a root canal. I ended up driving all the way to Jefferson City, MO, which about an hour away from me, for the procedure. When I went into the main office, I saw The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuilding Civilization sitting on the coffee table. I just had to snap a picture of it. I have this same book sitting on a shelf in my library, as I don't own a coffee table. I don't know exactly how essential this book will be in rebuilding civilization, as it's mostly very high level information about what civilizations need to keep running. The interior artwork is pretty cool, though, and there is a section on "Bows & Crossbows." I fine it to be a neat book to have on the shelf, even if I'll never use it for its wisdom.
INTRIGUE. CONSPIRACY. MURDER. OH MY!
Anyone who's paid attention to what I've been reading will note that I've mostly been reading Dune novels and Star Wars novels. These both contain incredible amounts of intrigue, as characters conspire with each other to meet various personal agendas.
I find stories of intrigue fascinating because I enjoy seeing how both the protagonists and antagonists engage in intrigue to tell a gripping story. In a techno-thriller, the protagonists might need to form a conspiracy of their own to counteract the much larger conspiracy of antagonists whose overall goal is to conquer the world (or worse--kill it off).
Intrigue can be found in virtually any genre or subgenre of writing, so I don't think it's a genre unto itself, but certainly it's a very common trope in many different genres. In a romance story, for example, characters may find themselves embroiled in a complex love triangle that can only be resolved by the permanent removal of one of the other members of the love triangle--i.e., murder. In a murder mystery, the characters in the story may all be vying for some ultimate goal that again relies on the removal of a key player to further their aims. But we never know the full extent until Monsieur Hercule Poirot brings all the suspects into the Accusing Parlor and explains each character's actions, which ultimately results in a single solution the fits all the facts.
As I read the Star Wars: Dark Lord Trilogy, I'm constantly reminded of all the machinations that the Galactic Senate is engaged in behind the scenes as Supreme Chancellor plays Senators off each other like puppets as he consolidates his own power until it's too late. This is a common flaw in many stories involving conspiracies and intrigue--oftentimes there are multiple games being played simultaneously at different layers. Those who can recognize that and exploit the layers of the game will prosper. Those who are blind because they are only focusing on their own agenda are likely to lose--and maybe be killed as a result.
In Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, there's a saying: "On the heights, all paths are paved with daggers." The meaning of this is obvious. As one grows in power and prestige, the road to achieve that power is bloody and vicious. You always have to watch your back as those below you are always scheming to take your place. Most of the stories focusing on intrigue and conspiracies do involve persons of tremendous wealth, power (economic and political), and are all too willing to exercise them, if only because they are bored with life. To the antagonists, it's simply a game, manipulating the lives of lesser beings. To the protagonists, they may reluctantly become involved because it's necessary for their very survival. Or they, too, enjoy the game and are engaged only to see the other guy lose or it's an intellectual challenge.
What are some of YOUR favorite stories featuring intrigue and conspiracies?
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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS
I read Biological War: A Scenario by Anne Jacobson. She is the author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, which this book is patterned after. A lab leak at a biological weapons lab in Russia is the premise. The release is a plague bacteria which has been modified to produce a day of euphoria after infection, giving the infected extra time and energy to infect others. It was also modified to be immune to all antibiotics. The plague bacteria is joined with a virus which is triggered when one takes antibiotics as one would do in the early treatment for plague. The virus causes nervous system failures. The scenario follows the spread of the disease around the world and is interspersed with histories, such as previous scenarios run by think tanks, history of bioweapons, etc. A tense, riveting, frightening read.
Posted by: Zoltan at August 23, 2026 09:24 AM (0/Ew+)
Comment: These kinds of books can be truly frightening, especially when the scenario is so plausible. The idea that mankind should be developing new and deadlier viruses is so fundamentally STUPID that anyone proposing it should be subjected to their own deadly cocktail if only to shut them up.
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I finished The Bridge on the Drina. 5 out of 5. Very interesting book about the old confronting the new in the Balkans as the Turkish empire falls and the Austrians move in. I started The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester about the origins of the OED. I can already tell that this will be a fast read (80 pages down the first day). So far, it's a really interesting story.
Posted by: Who Knew at August 23, 2026 09:58 AM (+ViXu)
Comment: I first encountered The Professor and the Madman when I was randomly perusing the stacks in the basement of the campus library where I once worked. It just caught my eye, so I plucked it from the shelf and started reading. And then couldn't STOP reading because it was so gripping. You wouldn't think that a story about the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary would be so fascinating, but you'd be wrong. It turns out a major contributor to the OED was a lunatic who killed a woman at random and then castrated himself while incarcerated in the madhouse. But he knew his stuff when it came to etymology.
This takes place about 3500 years after the events of Children of Dune. Leto II, son of Paul Atreides, has merged his physical form with the sandtrout of Arrakis to become something new, a hybrid of human and sandworm. This gives him nigh invulnerability and greatly expands his lifespan far beyond what even the spice melange can do. Now he has forced humanity down the "Golden Path," which will ultimately result in humanity reaching out and fulfilling their full potential, even though most humans have no idea that's even happening. The desert planet Dune has been transformed into a much lusher, greener paradise world, which has had the side effect of destroying the sandworms who were vital for producing the melange on which the entire galaxy depended for survival.
A cabal of plotters and schemers now seek to destroy the nearly indestructible Leto II, but as he's prescient, they have to figure out a way to trap him within his own visions of the future.
Like Dune: Messiah, much of this book features characters sitting around and talking about their feelings. The umpteenth incarnation of Duncan Idaho, who first appeared in the original Dune is still alive and kicking, as the Bene Tleilaxu who made him are still sending newer versions to serve Leto II in the vain hope that Duncan will eventually be able to bring down Leto.
Star Wars - Darth Bane Trilogy 3 - Dynasty of Evil by Drew Karpyshyn
Because this is the Villain's Journey, we see Darth Bane and his apprentice at their worst as they plot and scheme to not only conquer the galaxy but eliminate each other. According to Darth Bane's Rule of Two, the Apprentice *must* eventually challenge the Master when the Master is no longer capable of being the one in charge.
Bad guy wins in the end, but it's actually a bit ambiguous *which* bad guy wins. There's a slight chance some part of Darth Bane's essence is still around.
Star Wars - Episode I - The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks
Terry Brooks is best known for his Shannara series, but Lucasfilm reached out to Brooks to ask him to write the novelization of Star Wars - Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Brooks already had a very strong relationship with Del Rey, the publisher of the Star Wars franchise, and he made his fantasy debut back in 1977, the same year Star Wars was released in theaters.
Brooks does a pretty good job, mostly following the main storyline in the movie, but also adding a few details here and there. For instance, the book opens with scene where Anakin is working for his master Watto on Tatooine, and we see glimpses of Anakin's podracing skills, which will be highly relevant later in the story. Overall, it's slightly better than the movie simply because we do get more insight into who each of the characters are on the inside through their inner monologues.
Star Wars - Episode II - Attack of the Clones by R. A. Salvatore
Salvatore was an odd choice to pick to write the novelization for Episode II and here's why--he does not know how to write romance scenes between characters. Salvatore is excellent in writing action pieces. But romance is NOT his thing and the romance subplot between Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala really needed much better writing. They were awkward enough in the movie, but Salvatore somehow made them worse.
Star Wars - Dark Lord Trilogy 1 - Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno
This novel is an interquel between Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It takes place right before the events of Episode III, and we see everything that leads up to the capture of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. We also see the growing power and arrogance of Anakin Skywalker as he goes about his duties as a full-fledged Jedi Knight. He KNOWS he's better than the rest of the Jedi on every level. This will come to a violent confrontation in the next book. Here he succumbs more than once to "hero syndrome" as he and Kenobi go on vital missions again and again to protect the Republic from Separatist threats. We also see Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) and Darth Sidious (Chancellor Palpatine) moving behind the scenes to set up the main conflict of Episode III.
Star Wars - Dark Lord Trilogy 2 / Episode III - Revenge of the Sith by James Luceno
I've seen a lot of YouTubers raving about how good the novelization of Episode III is--and now I understand why. It really is a very good story about Anakin Skywalker's journey to the dark side. Matthew Stover took great care to unravel the interactions of the characters from the movie so that the reader can fully understand everyone's motivations for their actions. We also see extended scenes about Chancellor Palpatine's seduction of Anakin Skywalker to the dark side. He plays on Anakin's fears and insecurities masterfully until Anakin can no longer sort through what's real and what's merely a product of Palpatine's manipulations. Until Anakin finds himself alone, no longer trusting the very people who love him dearly. Only Palpatine can offer Anakin his heart's desire--saving Padmé from death in childbirth. And that is the turning point in Anakin's fall right there.
Very good book. I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.
Disclaimer: Always wash your hands after reading books!
Word of caution: If you ever rewrite your own blogging platform and use your personal website as a scratch monkey, remember to unmount it before trying to post your daily update, or you may experience a moment of blind panic when everything is gone.
The obvious immediately happened and a judge has ruled that a bunch of lousy grifters fine upstanding group of gentlemen cannot simply appropriate an established trademark for profit.
The interesting part is that the best model at this is - Grok Bot, give me a drum roll please - the brand new GPT-6 Astra.
It's not only a clear leader in this test, it is far out on the Pareto frontier: By the time you find a cheaper alternative, the benchmark score has dropped all the way from 70 to 20.
It wasn't even BGP, which is to DNS what moissanite is to diamond.
A worker just unplugged all the fiber connections.
Today: Slept, weeded the garden and watered the plants, slept, weeded the garden some more and mowed the lawn, implemented the Raft consensus protocol on my new database, nudged Ruby and Ada into reluctant alignment, got my new blog platform actually working...
Yeah. It loads my site and renders it mostly correctly.
For years progress has been at a dead end because MySQL is not the right database and neither is anything else, and Python is not the right language and neither is anything else. I kept trying alternatives, building proofs of concept, and throwing them away, convinced that if I could just find the right combination, lightning would strike and my creativity would be unlocked again.
And... I was right. Took me one day to get my blog working on the new programming language and the new database that I spent that long detour building.
Saturday Night Club ONT - September 5, 2026 [Disco & Dino]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to Club ONT - a whelming collaboration of The Disco and The Dino.
Open thread - bar is open, too. Come in in, grab a drink or 2. Or 3. Keep it light and friendly. The moose out front is on troll patrol, so say a word of thanks as you pass by that the moose is on duty.
Club ONT Department of Timelines and New Testament Theology
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Club ONT Department of Social Media PR
From the Greensboro, North Carolina police department:
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Club ONT Jukebox
The 2002 original:
The 2019 enthusiastic one-man-band heavy metal for YouTube cover:
The brand new August 2026 cover:
The song has staying power!
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Top 10ish Comments of the Week
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Club ONT is brought to you by: dudes who get it
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There has been a noticeable decline in the amount of Chung Wanging here at Club ONT. Patrons are reminded that everybody is encouraged to have fun, which simply can not occur if everybody doesn't also Wang Chung.
Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: The Searchers (1956)
—Open Blogger
Pickings have been slim. The Olivia Wilde-helmed The Invite has been hanging on for months, a comedy with a solid 7.5 or so on IMDB. I've thought about going to see it a half-dozen times and, frankly, it just gives me the creeps. There's a John Boorman documentary on how he screwed up Exorcist II: The Heretic that gives me Jodorowsky's Dune vibes but it's awkward to get to. So I says to the Boy, I says, "Well, what if we went to see The Searchers?"
I had seen The Searchers twice before. The first time was as a relatively young nearly 29-year-old. (I approach 29 like Xeno's Paradox: I get closer and closer to it every year but never quite hit it.) After having avoided Westerns all my life—living in a dry, dusty place gave me an aversion to going to see movies about dry, dusty places, and all Westerns are thus—the Old Man and I took in a series at the local Laemmle. (Both the Old Man and the local Laemmle are gone, alas.)
This series turned me around, as I had absorbed some of the negative stereotyping of Westerns being one-sided, simplistic, macho—and I presume there's probably an element of this in the serials and the Republic-type B-pictures, but the movies we saw presented Indians as a threat but not necessarily as bad guys. There was a strong understanding of the difference between macho and hard, where "hard" meant doing what had to be done and not whining about it no matter how much you hated it.
The Searchers, in fact, was sort of shocking and, when I first saw it, I felt it was racist.
Hey, I said I was a young nearly twenty-nine.
In fairness, very few Germans fought cowboys in the Old West.
My thinking was that, clearly Ethan (John Wayne) is meant to be racist, which doesn't make the movie racist. But the movie seems to agree with his stance which would make the movie racist.
How does it "seem to agree" with his stance? Well, it shows the victims of Comanche captivity as becoming insane, barbaric, retarded, etc.
The second time I saw it, with The Flower, I liked it better. And I started to wonder. I was much further along the road to 29 at that point, and I did a little research and discovered that, well, yes, the Comanches were savage in this particular wise, and the source book is very well researched. (Though the actual story it's based on is inverted, with the kidnapped woman preferring to stay with the Amerind tribe. That's a whole ball of wax, tho'.)
As it turns out, The Boy had never seen it, and this was my third time viewing. And I liked it even better.
That's Ethan's mother and father in the older graves.
First of all, the movie's been given the 4K treatment, and it is gorgeous. A lot of those old westerns had sharper contrast than the noirs, and Monument Valley probably doesn't even look this good inperson. Like Blade Runner, every frame's a painting. Unlike Blade Runner, The Searchers isn't like watching a thousand paintings dry.
While watching this, I kept thinking: "This reminds me of Lawrence of Arabia. The landscape becomes its own character. The sense of scale makes everything feel static and urgent at the same time. Allegedly, David Lean watched The Searchers repeatedly while preparing for Lawrence.
Second, John Wayne! TJMP has an insightful video on movie stars, and Wayne is a perfect example: He was very limited in the roles that he could perform. Not necessarily by his talent, but definitely by his star status. Here, while working completely inside this tough old cowboy role, he manages to act up a storm—subtly.
When Ethan shows back up at the family home after the war, he's welcomed by brother Aaron (Walter Coy) and sister-in-law Martha (Dorothy Jordan, coaxed out of retirement by her husband Merian C. Cooper and longtime friend John Ford). The feelings between Ethan and Martha are so plain, some speculate that Debbie (Lana, and then Natalie Wood) is actual Ethan's daughter.
Actually, it came across like a five-alarm fire this time, but people have actually missed this mutual attraction in the past.
This doesn't work, timeline-wise. And dramatically, it's far better for the unconsummated love to have driven Ethan away—he's unable to give a woman a decent home. This doesn't change his feelings for Martha, and makes the drama all that much more intense. When the posse goes out to investigate the missing cattle, and he realizes it was bait so that the Comanches could go after the houses, he stops, rests and feeds his horse—while Martin (Jeffrey Hunter) rushes back.
Ethan states the facts: The horses need rest. But when Martin has run off, we can see the agony in Ethan's eyes. He's as worried as any of them. And as much as he dislikes Martin—who is part Indian—he's also rather protective of him, not wanting him to see what he's seen, and trying to keep him from getting killed.
Seriously, Wayne is terrific here, and this character and performance would inform the rest of his career. The cast is pitch perfect: Vera Miles as the maiden waiting for Martin to settle down. Harry Carey, Jr., as the love-stricken boyfriend of Pippa Scott. You almost never notice he's 15-20 years too old.
Third, the mythic level of the film—that Ethan is the spirit of the Men who tamed the Wild West, and having tamed it, are no longer welcome—hits on so many levels. It works for the specific context of a tamed country. It works for every situation where men are sent to do rough things, only to find themselves changed and unsuited for a domestic life (if they ever were). It's Moses and the Promised Land.
This was an homage to the late Harry Carey, who used to hold his arm like this.
The music is all traditional, arranged by Max Steiner, and is perfect. The mandatory cowboy crooning song is...well, it's probably better than most. Those songs don't usually hold up well, in my opinion. At least when they did this kind of stuff in the '80s, the "for the Academy's consideration" generic pop songs were played over the closing credits. This one is less generic and only played at the front and back.
The Boy liked it, though he found the distinctions between the outdoor shooting and on-set shooting jarring—and these are the sorts of the things the 4K restoration tends to exaggerate and make more obvious.
But otherwise, it works very, very well indeed, and I understand now why it's often regarded as the greatest Western ever made. You can see its influence in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the aforementioned Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars, of course it's musical '80s remake, Streets of Fire, and many, many more. Hollywood has been threatening to remake it as sci-fi or horror for decades, and I think we can be grateful that's never happened.
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 lucky and decided on a painting plus theme for this Hobby Thread.
A what? Painting plus. What's that? Paintings plus other hobbying stuff. Oh.
The content may not be your favorite but give it a chance before you judge and bail out. Any adjacent hobbying is in scope, so jump in with your interests, stories and questions.
In any event, 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 or be entertained. If not, 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? Nope. 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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Did you see MisHum's painting on the most recent Monday ONT? It is titled "Fog Shrouded Falls." Hobby threaders are in for a special treat. With a bit of shameless begging, MisHum agreed to pull the curtain back a bit and show us how it came together. Ready for some painting in process shots? I knew it! Here we go...
Final result:
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Since we're talking about painting, let's highlight two waterfall paintings from two other Moron artists.
Hocking Hills from polynikes:
Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls from tankascribe:
Thank you for sharing! We are fortunate to have such talent and skill in our midst.
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Bob Ross - waterfall wonder:
At the 21:17 mark: "I'd catch a fish, put a little band aid on it, give it a little CPR, pat it on the toot-toot, put him back in the water, wish him well."
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This is the type of high quality content YouTube was made for:
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Old tools are pretty cool. Restoring old tools that make candy is even more cool.
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Everyone have your hummingbird feeders ready for the great seasonal migration?
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Is this the most wholesome content on YouTube right now? Maybe so.
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Fightertown at 1:350 scale:
More videos on the same channel of this massive modeling project.
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I sense this may resonate with the Horde:
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Anyone wise in the ways of hobbying with pallets? Maybe we'll do a full hobby thread pallet theme at some point. Many woodworkers repurpose scrap and pallet wood for their projects.
Does anyone know how pallets work? Do places that receive pallets send them back or throw them away or sell them or ? Is there such a think as a pallet deposit? Do hobbyists get discarded pallets from businesses or do they buy used pallets or ? If you stopped by a Home Depot and offered to take away the stack of pallets around back, would they agree or are those pallets spoken for elsewhere?
Not all pallets are suitable. Ones marked MB have been treated with methyl bromide which is a toxic pesticide. Don't use those. Instead, look for HT for heat treated.
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did a YouTube theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
Notable comment from last week:
Given the state of modern television programming and content, I sympathize with Elvis. If he were alive today, he would have run out of televisions.
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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. Or just email to say hello. Do mighty things.
During this behavior, which helps them warm up after a cold night, ring-tailed lemurs sit upright with their arms and legs outstretched and their bellies facing the sun to absorb its heat
Hot Tennessee greetings!
It's been a couple of years, and Henry is 8 now. He's doing well enough after his gall bladder removal, just takes a liver support supplement and only approved food and treats. Here he is in opposite modes - elegance and total abandonment to a vacation nap ;)
The pet thread continues to be a welcome diversion in these crazy times! Thanks!
- Kay
Gall Bladder Removal! Well, Henry looks fine in his "elegant" mode. Hard to tell in his "abandonment to nap" mode. I think I would love to meet him.
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My dog Daisy left us this past April at the age of 13. She was a very good girl and greatly missed.
MauserMedic
I love that photo. It looks like she loves you, too. Thank you for letting us get to know her a little. So sorry that she is gone.
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Cherished Pet Morons
At present, I have three cats (plus a shy feral outdoors which accepts food every morning) and one dog. The main cat is Prince Fluff the Magnificent, a long-haired totally white cat with one blue eye and one gold. He is one of the sons in the first litter produced by my daughter's white Siamese, Miso. We allowed Miso to have three litters sired by Augie-Doggie (a ginger and white male, rescued from the streets after being dumped). All of Miso and Augie's offspring save Prince went to live with various authors of my acquaintance and a selection of author's friends.
Attached is a picture of Prince, and of my surviving dog, Benjamin. Benji was also rescued from the street; a catahoula hound mix, who bears a resemblance to my childhood family dog, Punchy. Benji also knows who is boss in the household - and it's not him. In the second attached picture, he is on the sofa being intimidated by three kittens of Miso's last litter.
I post as Sgt. Mom.
What a fine collection of Pet Morons, and a nice story about some others, as well!
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PetMoron Adjacent Animals
Encountered by Members of The Horde
Great photo from Hrothgar. Any guesses on the exact species of bird this is?
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Morning KT!
This guy actually isn't my pet, but I did spot him on a trip out west when Nebraska was still entirely engulfed in flame.
No way in hell I was gonna cross into his territory to get close to him, though..
Thanks for the thread, and I lurk as Xenophon.
That is a distinctive and dramatic photo, even if it isn't a close-up. Thanks for sending it in.
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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.
Hope you and your Pet Morons have a great Labor Day Weekend. Until next Saturday, have a great week! Take care of those sweeties!
This year’s winnings! Top and middle rows, Western Idaho Fair, Agriculture Division. (16 entries, 9 ribbons plus 2 special “Largest” ribbons)
Bottom left, same fair, Floral Division. (4 entries, 2 ribbons)
Bottom right, Canyon County Fair (my first time entering there; 3 entries, 2 ribbons).
CONGRATULATIONS!
YAY!
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Lawns
From By-Tor:
I might have to go full Carl Spackler on the moles that are tearing up my front lawn. What I thought was dead grass from heat is grass killed by mole tunnels. I keep finding mounds of dirt in different places.
I could trap them. Sounds like a hassle. Or just spread the fresh dirt around and coexist. They do eat a lot of insects and spiders, apparently.
Any experiences with moles or gophers?
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Tree Removal Codes
The city of Seattle has a municipal tree code that is almost 10K words long. It has a system of 4 tiers outlining what can be cut. If you want to cut trees in Seattle, you must apply to the city to be an approved provider and prove mandated insurance. If you want to cut them on… https://t.co/olFL4PpphQ
The quote above is from a video by Spencer Pratt (included below) about the Lindsay Clancy case. Which may be leading to some similar cases:
"IS THIS THE NEW ME TOO MOVEMENT?" "An Illinois mother allegedly hanged her 2-year-old son that she described as the 'anti-Christ' - - hours after discussing the Lindsay Clancy case with friends. . . '
But today, since we are in the Labor Day Weekend, perhaps we can touch upon some othe issues related to dignity - some references to communism and other forms of totalitarianism and the dignity of our educational systems.
But back to murders related to mental health. Matt Vespa wrote that some of the JURORS wore pink in apparent solidarity with the defendant.
The Spencer Pratt video mentioned pre-dated the mistrial. It's not just this case:
We've lost our damn minds. The Lindsay Clancy mass psychosis proves that a lot of people need to have their Wifi taken away. But this psychosis started many years before TikTok... pic.twitter.com/WhT1iXJ9Pj
How many more people have to die before liberal politicians give up their determination to keep patent psychotics loose on the streets? Every politician and activist who has fought the institutionalization of the seriously mentally ill is the but-for cause of Monday’s fatal… https://t.co/zsTmg4dUqo
Senate Democrat nominee James Talarico appears ready to bring a touch of Trotsky to Texas. In a video from a climate forum, Talarico is shown declaring capitalism an “oppressive system” linked with white supremacy and that it must be “dismantled” to achieve a better world. It is reminiscent of Leon Trotsky, who denounced the “fundamental evil of the capitalist system” and called on citizens to free themselves from its oppression. The Democratic Socialists of America and radical sites have long called “to dismantle the capitalist state.”
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History illuminates the present. I've been reading Stephen Kotkin's widely and justly praised multivolume biography of Joseph Stalin and have encountered many passages that illuminate the present.
That provides an interesting context for Vladimir Putin's 2005 speech in which he said that "the collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."
Nature just put out an editorial praising Jason Arday, affirming the lie he was autistic & arguing he had an unmet right to see the evidence against him and respond accordingly
They argued that didn't happen, even though we all saw it
NEWS: Jason Arday Lied About Having a Masters From Birkbeck University
I filed a freedom of information request to Birkbeck University to check the claim Jason Arday made in the video below in 2022 that he had a masters in psychodynamic practice from the university.
.@UMESPres Heidi Anderson runs a historically Black university. She plagiarized her PhD dissertation. Jason Arday got a solidarity letter for the identical charge.
The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
[A very memorable day here at Casa Misanthrope]
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival there are just a few house keeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in East St. Louis.)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind. Be nice. Don't be Pretti Good.
3) No. I don't care if Austin's parents let him run with a chain saw. They hate him.
4) Have a great weekend you laborers!
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:
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.
6/23 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.
8/20 Update – He has finished his radiation treatment, so all he has left are blood tests and waiting. Thanks for everything.
7/25 – Teresa in Fort Worth posted an update. She is still doing fine. Her chemo pump seems to be working and everything appears stable for now. She says she is incredibly blessed! She is working on a stocking for an as-yet-not-born grandchild. She would appreciate prayers for a successful IVF procedure and pregnancy for her daughter and hubby. Next week, Teresa and her husband will be going to California to visit their daughter who lives there and her family.
8/4 Update – Teresa was admitted to the hospital while on vacation in California. She has a bad infection – cellulitis - not due to the cancer. She is being treated with antibiotics and hopefully it will be cleared up in a couple of days.
8/28 Update – Teresa’s bloodwork is back, and everything looks steady. She has a CT scan on 9/4.
7/29 – Notsothoreau asked for prayers for Billy Ray’s mother, who was just admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. She is a cancer survivor and chemo destroyed her immune system, so this is a big worry.
8/2 Update – Billy Ray’s mother is feeling better, on oxygen and medication. She is not out of the woods, but has stabilized. She appreciates the prayers from around the globe and says thank you very much.
8/16 Update – Billy Ray’s mother is at home, recovering, and down to just needing a little oxygen at night. One of the doctors told her that he didn’t think she was going to make it. Prayer works.
7/29 – TecumsehTea wrote that MrTea’s diagnosis is colon cancer stage 4. They are praying for guidance for how to proceed.
8/12 Update – MrTea will start radiation treatments for the tumor in the sigmoid colon on Monday – 10 treatments. They are not sure what will follow; they are still looking at options. Surgery is not an option. The cancer has metastasized to the lymph node nearest the tumor and there are 3-5 small spots in the liver. There are also spots in his lung which are indeterminate. He continues on fenben and ivermectin. Prayers are appreciated.
7/30 – David sent an update on his wife, Susan, who we have been praying for as she is treated for cancer. Susan is still doing well and her numbers are headed in the right direction, but they are still having issues with the side effects of the chemotherapy. It is manageable, but they have to increase the number of office visits for additional treatments. Some days are really good right now, but others are only bearable with the Lord’s grace. They are so grateful for the prayers on their behalf.
8/26 Update – Susan’s cough has gotten so bad that they did X-rays on her chest. It might be pneumonia. She is in the hospital. Her sodium and blood pressure are low and she is not eating much now. They are trying to turn this around and ask for everyone’s prayers.
9/2 Update – Susan is back in the ICU. She either has an infection or the cancer has spread to her lungs. Either way, thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for Susan and please continue them.
8/8 – Ace-Endorsed Author A. H. Lloyd posted that Mrs. Lloyd will undergo a double mastectomy to remove the breast cancer. She has advanced to Stage 1. Much hinges on the biopsy to determine the specific sub-category of cancer and whether chemo is necessary. Please pray for her in this time of need.
8/22 Update – Mrs. Lloyd is healing ahead of schedule and the surgeon was amazed at her progress. She is still in pain and has limited mobility, but each day she is gaining more freedom of movement. That is the good news; the bad news was the unrealistic expectations set by the medical staff. The surgery was much more significant, and she will also need chemo, contrary to what she was told before.
8/8 – Retired Buckeye Cop requested prayers for his nephew, Josh, who is losing his business due to overwhelming debt. Old addictions have returned; he is drinking heavily. He is currently estranged from his family. His mother is Mrs. Cop’s kid sister.
8/12 – Joe Kidd asked for prayers for a friend’s cousin, who is beginning chemo treatments for stage 3 cancer.
8/14 – RandomDave asked for renewed prayers for his job situation. He just found out that the position he was close to getting went to someone else, and doesn’t know where to turn. He hates to ask, but is getting desperate. He has a GiveSendGo set up; please contact Annie’s Stew for more info. Thanks to those who have already given and thank you for the prayers. They are keeping him from giving up.
8/15 – Donna V contacted Mis. Hum. to let the Horde know the following: “Please let the horde know I am doing fine in hospice”. She would appreciate your prayers.
8/15 – Buck requested prayers for his wife. She is diabetic, and had a bad day on 8/14, with weakness, vomiting, irregular pulse, high blood pressure. She has had sepsis 3 times. They went to ER, but they only gave her meds for nausea, and now she’s back home. Pray that she recovers quickly. Thanks to all.
8/15 – Intruder Driver asked for prayers for Tonya, who was burned over 90% of her body in a gas explosion in Cabo San Lucas. She is now in a hospital in Mexico City. She has a long road to recovery, if she survives.
8/22 Update – Tonya did not survive her burns. Prayers for her and her husband Rusty, who were/are active members of their local church in Mexico.
8/27 – P asks for prayers for the soul of her nephew, C, who committed suicide on 8/17. He was only 32. May he find the peace in the afterlife that he could not find in this life.
8/26 – Teresa in Fort Worth asks for prayers for her BIL, Dick, who was found dead in the alley behind the house in Texas. He had been in declining health and had dementia. They aren’t sure how long he was outside before he passed away. Teresa’s SIL seems to be handling it okay so far. Teresa also asks for prayers for a former neighbor, Melissa, who is hospitalized, recovering from a second stem cell/bone marrow transplant as they attempt to cure her leukemia. She now has blood blisters in her mouth and throat. She had to be intubated before her throat closed completely. This might be her body rejecting the transplant.
8/27 – “…” asked for prayers for healing (and sleep) for Brit Lass. She is having tests, and so far they are good, but she is worried. She has an imaging test coming up and then an appointment with a surgeon.
8/30 – SPinRH_F-16 requested prayers for classmate “D.B.”, who has ALS. Please pray that he remains as comfortable as possible and for support for his family as they see him through this. Thank you in advance for your earnest prayers.
9/2 – Bulg asked for prayers for purpose in his life.
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.
I hope there's a certain amount of sibling rivalry between Claude Opus and Fable; I just gave Opus access to a complete history of my personal blog where I am complimentary to it and much less so to Fable.
And even less so to OpenAI, to be fair.
Which is to say, Minx 2.0 is finally under way. The database and language limitations that blocked me - there's no database that works the way I need and no language with the set of tradeoffs I want - are gone. I didn't have enums or multi-valued indexes or sharded search in MySQL, and while Python is not bad, making it fast is a juggling act.
So I built my own.
Aiming for a release on my own blog on the 21st followed by wider availability once it's proven itself.
Meanwhile work continues on porting Hack to a 1983 10-bit imaginary home computer. The level generation took 15 seconds initially, but chasing down the code paths in the Basic runtime plus a few clever software optimisations got that down to about 500 milliseconds. It blinks and the new level appears - but that blinking is doing magic, because high-resolution text display really taxes the memory bus and it's the trick of hiding the map that allows it to be drawn so fast.
The Coder platform enables organizations to provide developers with secure, self-hosted cloud development environments for building and deploying software, including AI applications.
"Secure."
The project is used by prominent private and government organizations, including Dropbox, Palantir, Square, Mercedes-Benz, KKR, EnBW, the U.S. government, and defense companies.
Dropbox needs to find better partners to work with.
Not one you put inside your home. It costs $150,000. You buy one instead of a home.
Musical Interlude
Disclaimer: If it hadn't been for Copperhead Road I'd be making moonshine long time ago Where did they come from, where did they go How did the feds find Copperhead Road?
I had a friend say to me the other day “Hot enough for ya (it was 108)? I responded (naturally) “It's not the heat, it's the humidity.” Then I paused and said “I think we just reached peak White.”
Neil the Seal, the internet's favorite 5-year-old southern elephant seal, is back.
He has spent his vacation growing into a massive 1,000-kilogram (one-tonne) subadult and he is currently treating Tasmanian infrastructure like his personal playground. pic.twitter.com/WPqttEzSdM
San Francisco Oakland has, get this, a pro-Hamas coffee shop.
They redid their menu on 10/7 and added a new drink to celebrate the now-deceased mastermind of the Muslims' great victory over unarmed girls and babies at a youth rave.
They also kick out any Jews they detect, calling Jews' simple interest in coffee "zionist oppression."
Frankly I'd like to see all of these laws rolled back. I'm sick of it and I'm sick especially of the ludicrous double-standards, such as those shown by these Heroic Murder-Simps.
But while they're on the books: Make them squeal.
From the DOJ lawsuit:
The lawsuit, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that defendants discriminated against Jewish customers through policies and practices that denied them the full and equal enjoyment of the Jerusalem Coffee House's services, accommodations, and privileges. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that on two separate occasions, Harara ordered Jewish customers -- identified because they were wearing baseball caps with Stars of David on them -- to leave the coffee house. During one incident, an employee told a Jewish customer who was trying to make a purchase, "You're the guy with the hat. You're the Jew. You're the Zionist. We don't want you in our coffee shop. Get out." During another incident, Harara accused another Jewish customer who was with his five-year-old son of wearing a "Jewish star," being a "Zionist," and supporting "genocide." Harara repeatedly demanded that the customer and his son leave and falsely accused them of "trespassing" to the Oakland police. Neither customer stated anything about their political views to Harara or any other employees while at the coffee house.
The Suckers of Terrorist C**k respond:
We've been fighting three lawsuits in both state and federal court since 2024. The United States Department of Justice, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Brandeis Center for Justice brought three separate and duplicative lawsuits over two incidents of zionist harassment of the cafe and its staff in 2024. These lawsuits represent the ongoing efforts of zionist organizations and the federal government to use the courts as a tool to repress free speech and public political commitments to Palestine.
Let's definitely invite more of these third world primitive tribal savages into the country. Why should the US be immune to the 1300 years of unending Muslim warfare that the Middle East and Europe have suffered? We must all suffer equally.
The degenerate future ex-state of California wants to force all businesses to disclose any involvement in slavery... again.
They just did this a couple of years ago.
California is set to force big companies to disclose their historic links to slavery as a new measure passed the state legislature this week.
The measure is now headed to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk and he has until September 30 to sign or veto it.
The bill is facing pushback from insurance companies, which argue it largely repeats an earlier California law requiring insurers to disclose past policies issued to slaveholders that covered the death or injury of enslaved people.
New York Life Insurance Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company and American International Group, known as AIG, were among the companies that disclosed ties to enslaved people and slaveholders.
Some reparations advocates have viewed the measure as a significant step forward, while others have questioned how much of an impact it would actually have.
The bill, known as Assembly Bill 2599, would require companies with more than $100 million in annual worldwide sales to search their records for evidence that they, their predecessors or subsidiaries bought or sold enslaved people or provided financial support for those transactions, including through insurance or loans.
The Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has agreed to the conditional release of a man accused of murder, continuing a pattern of releasing individuals charged with violent crimes who were found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Alexander Jahelka was accused of fatally stabbing his 66-year-old father in 2021. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a mental health institution.
Judge Dipti Pidikiti-Smith, an Indian immigrant, held a July 16 hearing on Jahelka's request for release. The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office agreed with a recommendation that he be released from custody.
Under the terms of his release, Jahelka was ordered to live in his apartment and work up to 40 hours per week. He is prohibited from leaving Virginia and must submit to random testing, according to Fox 5 DC.
If you're thinking "This sounds like old news, I just read about Steve Descano getting a mentally-ill Muslim killer a passport so he could flee the state," no, that was a different killer a week and a half ago:
The decision came just 10 days after Abdulloi Toshpulodzoda, another man accused of murder who had been found not guilty by reason of insanity, left the same mental health facility on an unescorted weekend pass and boarded a one-way flight out of the country.
The incident created criticism of Virginia's policy of allowing people committed to psychiatric facilities to be granted unescorted passes to be around the general public.
...
Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano has a long history of agreeing to plea deals for individuals found not guilty by reason of insanity. Descano refers to himself as a "progressive prosecutor" on social media, adding in his bio on X: "safety and justice walk hand-in-hand."
Another released individual, Robert Jablonski, was accused of attempted aggravated murder of a police officer after he aimed a crossbow at officers in 2022. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2024. A Fairfax County judge said he should not be released, yet a judge granted his conditional release just one year later, with the agreement of the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.
Virginians for Safe Communities (VSC)
@VA4SafeComm
A week after insane killer fled country because Fairfax "Prosecutor" Steve Descano gave him a passport, Descano freed a different insane killer
Alexander Jahelka who killed his father in 2021 in Reston is now free.
To date, Descano has given at least *14* killers insanity deals
Wesley Yang
@wesyang
Good news:
"The executive director of the Transgender Law Center, which describes itself as the largest national trans-led organization, shared that there has been a "near complete exodus" of philanthropy from the transgender rights movement."
Take such claims with a grain of salt from professionals seeking more donations. But if some people are waking up to the authoritarian falsehoods the transgender movement is seeking to entrench in law and choosing not to fund them, it's for sure a good sign.
Coddled Affluent Professional
@feelsdesperate
I don't think I'm above being propagandized. In fact, I'd probably go along with anything as long as the propaganda was good enough.
Along these lines one of the great puzzles of Woke 1 was why so much cultural production was made dumb, off putting, and aesthetically repugnant. As a Good Person you were supposed to 'eat your vegetables' and act like you enjoyed it, and this worked for those engaged in specific types of reputational and social competition.
But on the whole, for society at scale, libs lost a great deal of soft power by making laughably bad, ideologically doctrinaire art that no one with any honesty would admit to liking or finding pleasurable.
In fact, it was the opposite: the more unpleasant, inane, and cartoonish the art became the better a test it became of the ideologically committed and craven - you knew someone was completely committed when they would breathlessly report how something obviously terrible was wonderful.
This signified that they were all in and had sacrificed all credibility in service of ideological commitment. The downside of course was that the postwar lib cultural apparatus that was at its peak from the early 1960s to late 2000s ran off the rails and completely lost its ability set defining cultural narratives.
Iranian terrorist-supporting communist and diagnosable moron Mark Ruffalo tried to get the head of the Anti-Defamation League to give him the Green Light for antisemitism.
I know the ADL is now a corrupt Left-Wing Omnicause group but, come on imbecile, you can't ask the head of the ADL to say that it's okay to suggest Jewish executives have dual loyalties.
Sources tell Page Six Hollywood that Mark Ruffalo was looking to apologize for a pair of recent social media posts that cast Larry Ellison as a Lex Luther-esque billionaire oppressing Gazans and drew the condemnation of a broad swath of Jewish groups including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
Over the past week, States United Democracy Center co-founder Norm Eisen was working closely with the Marvel star on how to thread the needle of signaling contrition about offending Jews, while remaining firm in his opposition to the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger and (separately) Israel's military response in Gaza.
Insider say Ruffalo asked Eisen to enlist ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, who had called Ruffalo's two posts "cynical and sickening." (Eisen and Greenblatt had both worked in the Obama administration and are said to be friends.)
One source says Greenblatt rebuffed his old pal Eisen because he wasn't "interested in laundering Mark Ruffalo's reputation."
Another source says the ADL chief "couldn't help" the four-time Oscar nominee, prompting Eisen to pivot to an open letter defending Ruffalo that hit Tuesday.
— The Disrespected Trucker (@DisrespectedThe) August 31, 2026
I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸
@ImMeme0
Three days ago a gunman opened fire outside Venture-N, a Tucson gay bar. Two men dead. The shooter dead. Police now call it a targeted hate crime. He had a list of LGBTQ businesses on him.
You probably even didn't heard about it.
Because the shooter wasn't the approved villain. He WASN'T a white Christian nationalist. He was Ousman Ceesay, 44, a Muslim immigrant born in The Gambia. He confronted two men in the parking lot and started shooting.
One of the victims was Cameron Davis Capara, a well-known local photographer and left- wing political activist who spent years documenting pro-Palestine marches, anti-ICE actions, anti-Trump, anti-fascism rallies, and anti-capitalist "No Kings" circles. The other was Vincent Anthony Siqueiros.
Both were killed where they stood.
Police didn't rush out a mugshot package. Some coverage danced around the shooter's background. National cameras never really showed up. No wall-to-wall specials. No Democratic officials lining up at podiums to denounce homophobia and demand action. The story dropped fast.
That's the tell. When the facts don't fit the script, the outrage machine stays quiet. Two men get murdered outside a gay bar, the killer leaves a target list, and the same people who never miss a chance to lecture the country about hate suddenly have nothing to say.
If that doesn't show you how selective the media and the virtue-signal crowd really are, nothing will.
Three days ago a gunman opened fire outside Venture-N, a Tucson gay bar. Two men dead. The shooter dead. Police now call it a targeted hate crime. He had a list of LGBTQ businesses on him.
In Spain, a gay couple says that if the ‘far-right’ wins the next election, they will seek asylum in Palestine because they consider it the most ‘progressive’ place on earth.
'F**k you...hurry up and die': Swing-seat Democratic House candidate's deleted tweets show far-left record
William Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in one of the country's most competitive House races in Michigan, deleted hundreds of old social media posts in which he embraced police and prison abolition, called for nationalizing fossil-fuel companies to end their production, attacked moderate Democrats and argued for a "fundamental overhaul" of the Constitution.
Other deleted posts show Lawrence writing "f**k" the nuclear-family home and calling it an "isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society," envisioning "a world of free and open migration," and calling to "Abolish the Senate."
Lawrence even wrote a song inspired by moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's resistance to Democrats' climate agenda: "Our generation says f**k you for everything," Lawrence wrote in lyrics he posted in December 2021. "Hurry up and die so that we can get started."
The deleted posts, most of which have not been previously reported and came under a previous Twitter handle, stretch back years to when Lawrence, now 36, was building his career as a progressive organizer as an original co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, helping propel the Green New Deal into Democratic politics in 2018.
Since winning the Democratic primary in August, he's now the Democratic nominee for Michigan's 7th Congressional District, running against incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Barrett, who is seeking to win his first reelection.
Michigan's 7th is one of the country's truest House battleground tests: President Donald Trump carried it by less than two points in 2024 and the district was previously represented by now-Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin.
But Lawrence's past rhetoric may complicate Democrats' ability to retake the district, especially those deleted posts which include attacks aimed at fellow Democrats from the party's more moderate wing, including Slotkin.
Now for the "woke 1 was crazyyy" walkback:
'Thinking out loud on the internet'
Lawrence has since distanced himself from at least some of his earlier positions. He told Semafor last month that his past posts supporting the 2020 "defund the police" movement "are out of step with what I believe now." Last month, he told CNN's Manu Raju that he let his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America "lapse" in July.
He told CNN in a further statement he regretted his past comments on Sen. Slotkin and said he did not support defunding the police or open borders.
"Like many millennials, I've done my fair share of thinking out loud on the internet. I've been clear that I disagree today with some things I posted in the past. I don't support defunding the police or open borders."
...
'A world without police and prisons'
Lawrence's ideological arguments stretched well beyond Democratic infighting.
In 2021, Lawrence praised the Minneapolis activist group Black Visions, writing that its 'defund the police' campaign had brought the country "nearer to a world without police and prisons."
In August 2022, he argued that remaining fossil-fuel production should be wound down through a "more confrontational" strategy, writing that it "should happen through forced nationalization and that should be our demand." In October 2021, he pushed for then-President Joe Biden to "promise" to "end the coal industry," through an executive order.
Later in August 2022, Lawrence summarized his politics as "social democrat in the streets, libertarian socialist in the sheets."
He repeatedly took aim at the nuclear family home as well.
"F**k isolation and the nuclear family domicile," Lawrence wrote in 2021 while praising communal living. The following year, he went further, calling the nuclear-family home an "isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society." "I don't want to be part of that," he wrote.
Days later, Lawrence argued that the "hetero-patriarchial nuclear family" is a "MATERIAL foundation of wealth accumulation" because inheritance was concentrated through male family lines, while writing that "Queer families create MATERIAL conditions for solidarity and wealth sharing."
...
"May the 21st century begin an indigenous millennium," he wrote.
In another post, Lawrence declared: "Racial capitalism is the problem. Empire is the problem."
And in 2021 he urged readers to "envision a world of free and open migration," answering his own question -- "You mean, ANYBODY can move ANYWHERE??" -- with an emphatic: "Yes!"
The WNBA's woke AWFUL commissioner -- who Sophie Cunningham has suggested tends to make everything about her and her political agenda, rather than the league -- is retiring at the end of the year.
While the reported retirement of #WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is a win for women and an admission that the league's rules must change, her retirement does not solve the systemic issues which must be addressed in order to protect women's sports.
If the WNBA is unable to define what a woman is, then I, Enes Kanter Freedom, would be more than happy to step in as commissioner and lead this league back to greatness and restore fairness for all women.
I talk about her all the time. Why is she important? She was one of the world's preeminent experts on genocide.
She's a Kenyan woman, not a Jew, not married to a Jew, obviously not Israeli.
She rose in the ranks of international communities around the world because of her tremendous expertise in this field.
And she she reached the pinnacle of this field. She became the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Crime of Genocide and the Prevention of Genocide.
She became the world's preeminent and most prominent source on whether genocides were happening around the world and how to prevent them.
And she was adamant and clear that there was no genocide in Gaza, that it was the furthest thing from a genocide, that Israel spent tremendous amounts of money and effort and had an entire organization of its government devoted to preserving and protecting the lives of uninvolved Palestinian citizens.
And then what did Alice Nderitu get for telling the truth at the United Nations?
She was fired. Her contract was not renewed, and someone who would toe the party line was placed there in her stead.
And it's the fact that no one even knows her name that shows you what it looks like to lose an information war in the West.
Ellen "Elliot" Page: For Reasons I Don't Understand, People Aren't Calling Me Up to Offer Me Roles to Play Characters Who Look Like Whatever I Am
—Disinformation Expert Ace
You don't say?
A woman who cut off her breasts and had fake plastic "abs" inserted but who still looks and sounds like a ten-year-old boy but with visible wrinkles is finding that there aren't a lot of films calling for that particular type?
Elliot Page Is 'Not Really' Getting Casting Calls After 'The Odyssey': 'If Someone Wants to Call Me...I'd Love to Do Good Work'
Did you guys watch The Umbrella Academy? If you haven't seen it, don't bother. You wait for it get good and you keep waiting. At points, it gets okay, and then gets bad.
Here's one five minute scene featuring two cute girls (on the "bad guys'" team) and nothing in the show is this good so don't bother.
Anyway, I watched for a couple of seasons. Ellen Page was in it, playing the typical Ellen Page character, a fragile, squeaky-voiced scoldy girl with mental problems.
Then she "transitioned," and continued looking just as she did previously, but apparently insisted on having her character also transition, and then make two seasons' storylines mostly about her "transition." I signed up to watch an X-Men parody, I got two seasons of lessons about transgenderism.
She could have just played her character as a woman -- because she still looks like a woman. And aren't actors supposed to play "any role"? Well this role is female, and you should be qualified to play that, because you played it previously for 30 years.
But no, she had to now be "a guy."
The show turned rancid about this time, generally, and it's not all about her weird insistence on playing herself. I mean -- himself.
But it didn't help!
Elliot Page has never felt more comfortable on screen. Finding the right role, however, has proven to be more difficult. During his appearance on the "On Film... With Kevin McCarthy" podcast, Elliott revealed he hasn't been able to find another great role after starring in "The Odyssey," which hit theaters in July. The actor revealed he has no role currently lined up.
Yeah because Christopher Nolan did you a favor by rescuing you from unemployment by giving you a role you were totally unsuited for and which cost the movie maybe a half-billion in ticket sales.
But you can't count on former colleagues tossing you a Charity Role forever.
Your choices have severely restricted the roles available to you. You could actually still play squeaky-voiced tiny women... but you insist that no, you're a guy now, and you can only play Dude Roles.
I don't know what to say.
The "Umbrella Academy" actor, who came out as transgender in 2020, said he hopes to continue acting. Looking back at his experience filming Christopher Nolan's 2010 film "Inception," Page recalled feeling uncomfortable in his own skin. But now that he's embraced his true identity, he feels he's in the perfect place to accomplish his "best work."
Playing what?
I mean, you could do cartoon voice-work, but again, you'd insist on playing a Dude.
I guess if there's an animated Fish Movie you could play a Dude Fish with a squeaky voice. Maybe there'll be a new cartoon fish movie. I think that's your sweet spot, playing cartoon Dude Fish with low T.
...
While working on Nolan's film, Page developed shingles after feeling out of place while working "in a cast full of cis men." In his memoir, "Pageboy," the actor shared the cast and crew were "delightful to work with," but he still struggled to feel comfortable on set.
This article began with the obviously-bullshit claim that she's never felt more comfortable in her own skin, which does not survive past the fifth paragraph. Now we find out that in her last film -- and I mean "last" in both senses -- she was "uncomfortable" to be around men.
But you're a dude now. You should be having Bro-Time with the dudes.
"To come back no as you can imagine, being more comfortable in yourself makes these sorts of projects more enjoyable," Page said during the "X-Men: Days of Future Past" panel at New York City Comic Con in 2025 about "The Odyssey." "To get to have a Chris Nolan experience again now meant so much to me selfishly."
When Page's casting as Sinon, the cousin of Odysseus (Matt Damon), was announced, the actor faced backlash online. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro called the choice an "absolute puzzler," noting that Page is "about 5'2 and 105 pounds soaking wet and has the voice of a woman. It doesn't work."
Whoopi Goldberg spoke out against Shapiro's remark during an episode of "The View" in July, saying "A lot of conservatives who see this are going to feel the same way. That's okay. But I don't understand. Why go see the movie? If you don't want to see it, don't go see it. Why do you care who's cast in it?"
Seriously? Who cares about who's cast in a movie?
The cast is usually the biggest selling point of a movie. Actors' names are often above the title of the film.
And in historical movies, where a big selling point is to "see the world as it once was," and feel "immersed in a different age," you kind of want to see people who could have possibly existed in that age to be cast.
On to Ryan Reynolds. I tried to not hold the Blake Lively thing against him. Hey, if your wife gets crazy, you have to support her, even if she's crazy and being a real See You Next Tuesday.
But I am now wondering why I ever thought he was funny. Yes, he's doing Fletch-type gags and I guess he writes some of them but I'm not 14 any longer so the juvenile snark thing is wearing out its limited charm.
At least he seemed somewhat intelligent. For a creampuff light comedy actor, I mean.
Ryan Reynolds is beloved in Hollywood because he has mostly refrained from talking politics. Until now.
Exactly. He was -- emphasis on the past tense -- an unobjectionable lightweight.
He just became objectionable. I guess he's got to prove his Woke Cred now that his wife (and his own complicity in his wife's actions) has turned Hollywood against him.
The comedic actor best known for playing the flippant anti-hero "Deadpool" wasn't quite as funny when he decided to launch a stray at the 1980s.
He wants you to know the 80s were a living nightmare. Thank goodness we're in the new woke world where we don't have any of that old baggage!
Ryan Reynolds says ’80s nostalgia “paves over all the trauma” of the “tumultuous” decade:
“The 80s was a brutal, brutal time for people. It was a fucking mess and people forget that. It was a tremendous strife. Socio political tensions everywhere. We were still pretty fresh off… pic.twitter.com/CvNE3KLfff
"The 80s was a brutal, brutal time for people," he said for some reason. "It was a fu**ing mess and people forget that. It was a tremendous strife. Socio political tensions everywhere. We were still pretty fresh off a Cuban missile crisis, which was only 15-20 years before. It's a tumultuous period, but you look back at it now and you're like, 'Oh, yeah. 'Top Gun.' Cocaine!' Like, 'No!' It was really scary."
We were fresh off the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis in the 80s?
I'd hate to see your refrigerator. You seem to have a very flexible notion of "fresh."
If you are wondering when he was born, it was in 1976. He was still pre-teen before 1989. Maybe this flaky Canadian fuckboy was all scared of Canadian propaganda about Ronnie Raygun and his Apocalyptic drive to blow up the world.
I have a very, very conventional view on Deadpool 3, which I hear many other people expressing, so I'm not Mr. Original with this take.
When I first saw it, I was amused by all the cameos.
And then a day or two after having watched it, I realized it was a really empty film, that really was literally nothing but fan-service. Even the much-anticipated fights between Deadpool and Wolverine were inconsequential, because neither character can be killed and neither appears to even feel much pain.
Eh, I don't need this idiot. Go back to rom-coms with Sandra Bullock.
Trump to Universities: End Anti-White and Anti-Asian Discrimination NOW or Lose Your Tax Exempt Status
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Trump's been making a lot of moves to break the uniparty establishment cartel, which distresses fat piggies at the establishment cartel's sloptrough like Jonah Goldberg and Erick Erickson.
Gunther Eagleman
@GuntherEagleman
Aug 21
THIS IS HUGE.
The Trump Education Department just recommended stripping the American Bar Association of its power to accredit law schools.
A 500-page report concludes the ABA's accreditation arm is not independent, it operates like a cartel that injects its own political ideology into the process.
For decades the ABA has held a near-monopoly over who gets to become a lawyer in America. That monopoly is now under direct attack.
No more forced ideology.
No more one organization controlling the pipeline.
This is how you break the stranglehold!
He told the corrupt Marxist universities to stop discriminating based on race. The Supreme Court told them to stop discriminating based on race.
They continued discriminating based on race. Many made up new words and new programs and discriminated based on race while calling it something else. Many didn't even do that much.
This is the New York Times, so enjoy the way they spin this.
Trump Moves to Strip Tax Exemption From Schools That Aid Minority Students
Aid how, New York Times?
Once again, we're back to hiding the details that make the left look like what it actually is.
The Treasury Department released rules that would prevent schools with race-based programs from qualifying for tax-exempt status, a threat to both higher education and other private schools.
A vague way to say it -- "race-based programs."
Is that what the Supreme Court found to be illegal -- "race based programs," whatever they are?
Or racially discriminating against the white and Asian races?
The Trump administration released new rules that could revoke tax-exempt status from any school offering targeted support to Black or other minority students, a sweeping change that opens another front in the president's campaign to reshape American education.
Targeted support? Are there any races that experience targeted discrimination, I wonder?
Because that's what the Supreme Court determined to be (obviously) illegal. Not "supporting" people. Discriminating against people based on their races.
The proposed regulations, which the Treasury Department published on Thursday, would add another element to the guidelines that schools and other organizations must follow to qualify for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. The rules would deny tax-exempt status to any school, including secondary schools and universities, if it has any policy or program, including admissions and scholarships, that the I.R.S. finds to be racially discriminatory.
Admissions and scholarships in "race-based programs," you say?
What does this mean?
Do you mean they affirmatively discriminate against white and Asian students in order to give illegal racial preferences to black and Hispanic students?
That's obviously what you mean -- and you support this practice.
So why can't you say it? If it's something to be proud of, why do you hide it?
Such a change would thrust the I.R.S. into the center of the Trump administration's push to pressure schools to abandon initiatives aimed at supporting Black and other minority students, efforts meant to address the nation's long history of racial discrimination and segregation.
Do these efforts, allegedly "meant to address the nation's long history of racial discrimination and segregation" involve any current, present-day racial discrimination?
Because again, this is what the Supreme Court determined was illegal
Trump officials, however, view such programs as a form of discrimination against white and Asian Americans, and federal civil rights lawyers have opened investigations on those grounds into admissions policies at Harvard, Yale and other schools.
Oh they view it that way, I see.
The threat of losing tax-exempt status would tighten the financial squeeze the administration has applied to higher education by withholding federal research funding. Last year, President Trump called for the I.R.S. to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status, which experts said would be contrary to a federal law prohibiting the I.R.S. from carrying out politically directed audits.
While schools may still not owe much in federal income taxes even if they lost their tax-exempt status, the exemption is valuable because it allows donors to deduct donations they make directly to the school, helping fund-raising efforts. The rules will take effect after May 31 and apply to as many as 18,000 schools, the Treasury said.
Maria Bartiromo Reportedly Fired by Fox for Sharing Information About Election-Rigging with Trump, Which Fox Decided Must be Suppressed
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Update on Lindsay Clancy case, via Mark1971:
NEW: @FoxNews has obtained Lindsay Clancy defense attorney Kevin Reddington's appeal filing to the MA Supreme Court, which includes Reddington accusing the lone holdout juror of being "biased" against those with "debilitating mental illness", which he says is a protected category.
Dylan Byers
@DylanByers
17h
NEW: The Maria Bartiromo backstory, per multiple sources familiar....
Maria Bartiromo wanted to pursue a story related to China and 2020 election voting conspiracies... a major sensitivity for the network given its Dominion and Smartmatic lawsuits.
A Fox Business executive sent a text to Fox Business producers informing them that that story could not go to air.
Bartiromo took a screen shot of the guidance and sent it to senior White House officials.
Fox News leadership learned about that after receiving a call from the White House, which they viewed as a fireable offense.
Fox pulled Bartiromo from air after Aug. 9. She was fired today. I have also learned that her executive producer Patrick Ignozzi was also fired after the annoucnement.
Maria had resigned her contract with Fox last February.
Byers did add another juicy tidbit last night. Bartiromo has hired a well-known attorney to handle the situation with Fox. Bryan Freedman is a heavyweight in the entertainment industry, described by the Hollywood Reporter in 2024 as a "street fighter" and "the Dark Knight"...
Bryan Freedman represented Tuq'r Qarlson in his own suit against Fox, and actor Justin Baldoni in his defamation fight with cardboard actress Blake Lively. Tuq'r Qarlson praised him as "one of the good ones." (Not really, he hates all Jews.)
What is Fox even doing? Do they want to be MSNOW?
Unfortunately, JD Vance said that it was unlikely she would join the White House as Press Secretary:
"The irresponsible reports that have been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false," Freedman said Friday. "Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise."
He added: "Those reporting her firing or the incredulous facts supporting that fiction have exhibited a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth."
from anon2020 So what, she quit?
Megyn Kelly (accursed be her name) used to say all the time that Fox has a top female PR person who is a nasty pitbull and leaks nasty claims about anyone Fox is at war with, including those who have left the network. So I guess maybe she technically resigned? I don't know.
NEW: @FoxNews has obtained Lindsay Clancy defense attorney Kevin Reddington's appeal filing to the MA Supreme Court, which includes Reddington accusing the lone holdout juror of being "biased" against those with "debilitating mental illness", which he says is a protected category.
Holiday Break: I've had a rough couple of weeks -- the shoulder is healing now and I'm finally getting decent sleep -- and I've decided to take a long weekend.
I'm taking Friday off, and then Monday off, too. I have Open Threads for both days and I will post if big news breaks, but if it doesn't -- and it probably won't, news is slow before a holiday weekend -- I'm going to take a four day weekend.
Sh0eOnHead discusses the Psychotic Cult of Lindsay
Real quotes:
"This case has me feeling like I'm on Law & Order with you guys!"
"We literally binge true crime as a hobby, we've been trained for this moment" Worth the watch. If you haven't seen the genuinely upsetting insanity motivating thousands of women, you should watch this just to see how society is crumbling. Ban TikTok, Trump. I don't care if Barron tells you it's popular with the yutes. It is an evil Communist China op and it is driving women insane.
Dolly Parton tells the story of the supposedly real-life Jolene As Andrew Branca says, can we see this Jolene, finally? Who was this hottie that was a genuine sexual threat to Dolly Parton? I think this is Fake News personally. When a magician claims he learned a trick from a Himalayan wise man, I don't believe him either.
Podcast: Dolly Parton...an American classic, Michigan's El Sayed is part of our future destruction, More Global Warming nonsense, mail-in balloting restrictions, Darline Graham? Get rid of family dynasties...and more!
1977 interview shows that Barbara Walters has always been a seaward and Dolly Parton always had "country class" Walters actually asks Dolly Parton if she knows that people think she's a joke. This because Walters can't get over the fact that a show-woman has 1, big breasts, and 2, dresses a bit outrageously because, get this, she's an entertainer. A stage performer. You know, someone people pay money to see live and expect them to put on a show. She never would attack Liberace for wearing glitter-tuxedos. But she's mad that Dolly Parton makes Barbara Walters look bad through association (by being a woman). Babs, you wish people associated the two of you. Believe me, we can tell the difference.
