"Ahoy, maties! If I be th' GOP, I be tryin' t' keep Hillary on th' radar as much as possible. Shiver me timbers! 'cause ye know wha' Americans wants right now aft a bitter 'n contentious election be MOAR HILLARY ALL THE TIME! Arrrrrr!"
This has already been mentioned in the comments, but I have to highlight it here: Trump is knocking it out of the park at the U.N. today. Here is the best line from his speech:
"Venezuela has failed not because socialism has been badly implemented but because it's been faithfully implemented"
This is a line that's going to be remembered for a long time. Which is why the alt left is beside itself with impotent rage.
104 Funny to see Pittsburgh mentioned. My 17yo daughter is a HS senior this year, and was considering University of Pittsburgh for college. I've never been to Pittsburgh, and I know absolutely nothing about it. Does anyone have a real opinion about that campus? How worried should I be about my daughter going there?
Posted by: Chris M at September 18, 2017 11:57 AM (eAZVt)
Reaching For The Moon
Maxfield Parrish (maybe not...it could be an Edward Eggleston)
The old argument (the one in my head) rears its ugly head...is this graphic design or is this art? Perhaps when Parrish was working it was an easy answer, but today, with incredible software and lightning-fast computers it's not so clear. There are numerous examples of amazing "art" that were created on a PC using off-the-shelf software.
For those of you who prefer real art, here is something for you that should be less taxing on your artistic aesthetic.
Good morning kids. Today marks the one year anniversary of The Morning Report. I'd like to say that it's been more than a pleasure; it's been an inconvenience. In all seriousness, just wanted to say thanks for making this entertaining. And I'm honored to be allowed to contribute to what I think is the best political/cultural commentary and real news outlet anywhere. Thanks to Ace for the keys and the cob's for the support. Enough of that. We are loaded with linkage this Tuesday so let us commence. First up, Hurricane Maria is threatening Puerto Rico so if we do have an Morons down there, please evacuate or otherwise get to safety.
Top story is PDT's assertion that Obama used the FBI to wiretap him before the election has been confirmed. This includes conversation(s) between him and one-time campaign honcho Paul Manafort who, surprise! may be Scooter Libby-ed by Robert Mueller's kangaroo court. I really wish PDT would just end this friggin' shitshow and get rid of Mueller. And Rod Rosenstein while he's at it. That snake is a Deep State embed/saboteur sneaking whoopee cushions under Deputy Dawg's daybed.
The president is at the UN this week for its annual America/Israel-bashing and shakedown session. This time, however we have a real president who by all indications is going to read the riot act to the Farsis and Whoa, Fat!. On the down side, he seems to be falling into the Mideast Peace processor. Well, this is what happens when you get rid of the realists like Gorka and let the McMustards have your ear. Meh, maybe he's just mouthing platitudes but I don't see that as his style.
In news from the insurrection, Nancy "Different Strokes" Pelosi had to flee her own press conference when the illegal aliens she and her party have used as weapons to destroy us turned their aim on her. It's funny to see frauds like Pelosi who are always controlling these media Potemkin Village pseudo-events look like total fools when they blow up in their faces. They have no one to blame but themselves. After almost two years of portraying Donald Trump as "literally Hitler" the mindless droogs look at Pelosi and Schumer dealing with him as a stab in the back. Good. And with Comrade Bernie threatening to run in 2020 as an independent Commie, anything that divides the dividers is a good thing. Too bad we have no political party to take advantage of that.
In other news, James O'Keefe is teasing a huge expose of the MFM that will result in people getting fired. He and his group do yeoman's work in opening peoples' eyes to what the hell this country has devolved into. Investors Business Daily is cautiously optimistic about the latest block-grant Obamacare repeal/replace but fears that Murkowski might sabotage it at the last minute. There's a very interesting piece about the reaction a lefty writer gets for penning an essay called "The Case For Colonialism" and finally, Toys "R" Us is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. That is a huge deal vis a vis e-commerce and the trend in retail, not to mention the fate of over 60,000 employees.
Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.
The ONT has never seen this in any of Sunday's Food Threads. And it is doubtful that Weasel and Bluebell will have this recipe in their cook book (cough, cough). So The ONT brings you Weed gummies recipe.
Once you’ve mastered the basics of cooking with marijuana, like making weed butter or baking pot brownies, it’s time to move onto advanced techniques. Weed gummies are a popular choice because they fit in a little bag, they’re delicious, and their small size makes dosing a breeze.
This is only for you Morons where the weed stuff is legal. Don't be making illegal gummies otherwise.
*****
The ONT Musical Interlude
September 18, 1970, Jimi Hendrix was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Mary Abbot's Hospital in London at the age of 27 after choking on his own vomit. Hendrix left the message 'I need help bad man', on his managers answer phone earlier that night. Rumors and conspiracy theories grew up around Hendrix’s death. Eric Burdon claimed Jimi had committed suicide, but that’s contradicted by reports that he was in a good frame of mind. In 2009, a former Animals roadie published a book claiming that Jimi’s manager had admitted to him that he arranged the murder of Hendrix, since the guitarist wanted out of his contract. via thisdayinmusic.com
***
September 18, 2006, 73 year old country singer Willie Nelson and four members from his band were charged with drug possession after marijuana and magic mushrooms were found by police on his tour bus. Police had stopped the tour bus near Lafayette, Louisiana. via thisdayinmusic.com
PIERCE TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Getting cited by the police doesn't always have to be a bad thing in Pierce Township.
Police Chief Jeff Bachman said his men have added a new type of ticket to their arsenal: A yellow slip recognizing the actions of residents who take time to do the right thing for others.
For instance, in Europe, the practical wind energy potential for electricity production on- and off-shore is estimated to be at least 30,000 TWh per year, or ten times the annual electricity demand. [1] In the USA, the technical solar power potential is estimated to be 400,000 TWh, or 100 times the annual electricity demand. [2]
Such statements, although theoretically correct, are highly problematic in practice. This is because they are based on annual averages of renewable energy production, and do not address the highly variable and uncertain character of wind and solar energy.
It’s been roughly 230 years since the American Constitution first debuted. Unfortunately, that length of time doesn’t seem to have solidified its presence in the American mind. In fact, many Americans cannot even name the most famous element of its First Amendment.
According to a recent survey published by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, more than a third of Americans are unable to name any of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Freedom of speech is one of these rights. Yet while knowing this right seems like a simple and obvious matter, only 48 percent of Americans are familiar with it.
*****
The ONT has repeatedly told Morons to never stick their dicks in crazy. Do we have to expand the "No-No" list? Genius Award Winner.
STEWARTSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Police say a drunken Pennsylvania man who didn’t want to drink alone forced his way into a woman’s home and sat down with two 12-packs of beer.
Thirty-nine-year-old Sean Haller, of Stewartstown, faces charges including criminal trespass and remained in the York County jail on Monday
Over 200 years, many people have suggested ways in which we might be better off without freedom of speech, or religion, or assembly -- or any of the other rights enumerated in the nine other initial amendments...
That's normal. What should never be normal is what we are now witnessing: those folks appointing themselves a freelance constitutional convention, editing out the rights they find vexing, and enforcing their new rules with the power of their fists. But that is what has happened.
If we have to spend $600,000 to ensure that these people cannot arrogate to themselves powers we won't even allow our government, then that's probably a price worth paying. What we cannot afford to do is become inured to how outrageous it is. Every time it happens, we have to remind ourselves that all this security is the price we’re paying to protect ourselves from thieves who want to steal our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. And that it is possible to once again live in a world where this is not normal.
She doesn't mention the part that makes antifa more dangerous than white supremacists: White supremacists are despised by 99% of the population and have next-to-zero institutional support. But the media makes excuses for their fellow-travelers in antifa every day, and local law enforcement directed by liberal mayors give antifa license to practice their Free Speech Vigilantism.
That a rioter should attack a citizen is not an enormous concern. Such things happen. Murders happen. That is not a sign of any kind of a falling society, but only of a fallen mankind, which we've known about forever.
But when major institutions like the media and mayor's offices become the mob mouthpieces and private security firms for remorseless terroristic criminals -- then that is a sign of a society on the verge of collapse.
A crime committed by a miscreant is a sin. But a crime committed by a miscreant with PR cover provided by the "mainstream" media, and the winking tolerance of the government itself, is an unbearable threat of approaching tyranny.
In a stunning victory for streaming TV and for politicized drama, "The Handmaid's Tale" won awards for Best Drama Series, Best Actress (Elizabeth Moss), Best Supporting Actress (Ann Down), Best Director (Reed Morano) and Best Writing (Bruce Miller)...
It was a win for women in a patriarchal society! And a win for Hulu, which has been looking to break into the streaming field dominated by Netflix and Amazon.
Many of the handmaids made out just as well as their show: Moss finally landed Best Actress after multiple losses for "Mad Men" and one for "Top of the Lake." Veteran New York theater actress Dowd (who's terrifying in the show) seemed sincerely surprised to receive her trophy. Though she didn’t take home a trophy tonight, Alexis Bledel (who plays rebellious handmaid Ofglen) won Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series at the Emmys’ Creative Arts ceremony last weekend.
Yay, #GirlPower! In case you didn't know, "The Handmaid's Tale" is about a future dystopia set in America in 2017 in which Donald Trump marauds the countryside grabbing pussies and saying "boobs" to Brooke Baldwin.
You know what I'm hopeful about, with all these women winning Emmys for shows no one watches? I'm just hopeful that this sparks networks to make more shows only for women. Because there are barely any of those on TV.
But the Emmys didn't just shower awards on Political Soap Operas and Morality Plays. They engaged in the art form itself, constantly speechifying about Prog Doctrine.
Awards shows, by definition, are insufferable: the rich and famous gathering yearly to reward each other for being rich and famous. Yet this year's Emmys had an almost unbearable smugness to it.
Factor One was host Stephen Colbert, who -- no matter your politics -- has spent the past 10 months radiating self-satisfaction, too often mistaking speechifying for comedic monologuing.
...
We hit the smugness apex toward the end of the night, when Charlie Brooker won an Emmy for an episode of his dystopian anthology series, "Black Mirror." After lamenting that his dark vision of the near future was too "on the nose," he offered up an idea to the room:
"Maybe if all the beautiful people in this auditorium could start to physically make love with each other, or yourselves, on the count of three, this world would be a far better place."
Nah, that's what the after-parties are for.
Steven Colbert, who is yet another white male but who crowed about how "diverse" the nominees and award winners were, really did some innovative jokes about Trump last night. I'm sure all of the #RealNews media is linking all of Steven Colbert's innovative jokes about Trump, but here are Jimmy Kimmel's best Trump jokes when he hosted in 2016, and here are the best jokes made by celebrity presenters about Trump from 2015's Emmy broadcast.
Really edgy, novel stuff, guys! You truly are the Creative Class.
Incidentally, the show also featured Twitter Bubble-World controversy. See, apparently they had on Sean Spicer to goof on himself -- I guess the schtick was that he was aping the over-the-top potrayal of himself by Melissa McCarthy on Saturday Night Live -- and the Totalitarian Prog Censors began screaming that this was "normalizing" Spicer and giving him a platform.
The Washington Post rounded up a herd of shaken liberal influencers who were horrified to see the Emmy Awards "normalize" a former White House press secretary. McCarthy herself may not have appreciated the reverence. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, she shared her anxiety over Spicer's efforts to reclaim this satire with absurd self-seriousness. "No," she described her thoughts hearing Spicer mockingly threaten to push his podium toward adversarial reporters in the White House briefing room. "That’s not your joke to make."
More spazzing out about this collected by Twitchy.
And how did all this politicization of escapism turn out, ratings-wise?
If this firms up in final ratings, it will surpass 2016 as the worst-rated Emmys of all time, and 2016 surpassed the previous low, and so on. In fact, as Newsweek pointed out yesterday, the Emmys have lost 50% of their audience since 2013 and the lowest ratings since 1990, and last night’s extravaganza certainly didn’t turn the ship around.
Ed Morrissey quotes Matt Wilstein at the Daily Beast, commenting on "entertainment's" embrace of the doctrine of No-Escapism:
Stephen Colbert rose to the top of the late-night ratings -- and scored himself an Emmy nomination -- by going after President Donald Trump night after night on The Late Show. So there was something ironic about him using his opening number as host of the Emmy Awards to argue that television is the perfect distraction from the world’s problems.
Noah Rothstein (">cited earlier about Sean Spicer) notes the current "crisis" at ESPN, the MTV Awards shows, etc., and a catastrophic year for Hollywood's theatrical box office, and wonders if this is a trend: The Great National Tune-Out.
Maybe the politics on display were irrelevant; maybe the rise of streaming services has made traditional broadcast television a dying product. Maybe. But the Emmys misfortunes are of a familiar sort. This tune out is starting to feel like a trend.
Movies, cable and broadcast television, music; this tune out isn't entirely about cord cutting. This is something broader. Any attempt to divorce politics from the public's waning interest in entertainment media cannot compel without addressing the ubiquity of liberal political messaging permeating the products artists produce. Of course, no one can or should compel an artist to sacrifice their values for commercial viability. Nor, however, can you force consumers to endure a scolding they'd rather avoid.
"They got plucked and polished and waxed and some of them didn't eat for two months -- and all for what? To sound the same? And they have a right to speak," Conway told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" Monday morning. "Between the Emmys, the Miss America pageant was very politicized, our sports are very politicized, and it looks like the ratings are suffering. It looks like America is responding by tuning out because they want you to stick to your knitting."
One can only hope. It was Andrew Breitbart's dream that the media be destroyed -- not reduced in influence, but bankrupted. He predicted "This will all be gone, gone in five years," maybe in 2012 or so.
His prediction might have been off by a few years, but I sure hope this will all be gone, gone, with massive bankruptcies and layoffs, in maybe five more years.
Before they continue going down the road of refusing to offer escapism to an audience which literally only seeks escapism from them, they should check out how that's been working out for Marvel comics...
I've liked Megan McCain more and more since around 2014 or so, as she transitioned, as they say, to being more of a conservative.
I don't know why she wants "The View" gig -- money and exposure, sure. And, honestly, those are pretty good things.
But it can't be an enjoyable experience to be the Designated Republican and have to deal with Joy Behar and Whoopie Goldberg and whatever other idiots they have on there now. A miserable job that pays a lot of money is still a miserable job.
Case in point: Jedediah Bila just quit the show, reportedly due to the Shrieking Prog Yentas on the show being angry about her civil-but-skeptical questioning of Hillary Clinton.
"There was a lot of staff who were upset about how that interview was handled," says the source, speculating that "The View" wants the former secretary of state to appear on the show multiple times. "They had a lot to say to Jedediah about calming things down."
We’re told that Bila was signed on for the full season but "she left on her own accord,” the source adds. “There were some things making her uncomfortable behind the scenes, but she loves the cast. She seems to be looking forward to sharing her view in a world where there seems to be only one worldview."
A rep for Bila declined to comment.
The show's reps claimed they were fine with Bila's questions, but note that Bila's rep did not echo that Happy Talk. And note that Bila seems to be signalling her displeasure about this on Twitter:
And if you can't see the tweet he's referring to -- well, it's been deleted. (I should have posted this earlier when it was still there!)
All the tweet was was a 40 second clip of Bila's questions for Clinton -- presumably to show that the questions were polite and fair, and simply an example of actual journalism, instead of smothering Hillary Clinton with #GirlPowerHugz.
The fact that she deleted an on-its-face innocuous tweet may suggest that she got a talking to by The View's producers or something, telling her it was in her interest to go along with the Happy Talk Parting Amicably story.
So that's what Megan McCain is looking down the barrel of. Unless she switches her politics fast to be more #GirlPowerHugz. Which I hope she doesn't, because I don't want to go back to being annoyed by her again.
Your Daily Blue Checkmark Mafia Freakout: Trump Retweets Silly Gif of Trump Hitting a Golf Drive and Knocking Hillary With the Ball
—Ace
The official Democrat political class -- by which I mean "the media" - was in high dudgeon, as were the lesser minions of the Democrat political class, like US Representatives.
If you're saving the world, why shouldn't you make bank?
Former President Obama is pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars giving speeches to Wall Street firms, according to a new report.
Obama made $400,000 for a speech he gave to clients of Northern Trust Corp. last month, Bloomberg reported Monday. He gave a speech to Carlyle Group LP last week and is scheduled to headline Cantor Fitzgerald LP's healthcare conference next week.
A spokesman for Obama defended the former president, saying he has given speeches "true to his values."
The chemical hasn't been identified, but it's possible it was something benign -- the police seized apple cider vinegar sprayers, which protesters use to wash tear gas off their faces.
"It's hard to believe that this country was founded by men who thought that the people's liberty had a higher priority than the government's interests. People don't realize this until a SWAT team comes pounding on their door at 4am because they helped raise money for the wrong candidate."
(You can read about the incident in Wisconsin GP is referring to here.)
Boobs on CNN:
What's the big deal about using boobs on @CNN? Here are two of them the network has been using for quite a while pic.twitter.com/CmpjawG2w7
Last week I mentioned a lawyer who got fired for making a vile tweet about Betsy DeVos. I speculated he could probably find a progressive law firm that would hire him, and it looks like this firm in San Francisco would be a good fit for him:
This isn't a photoshop. Their website indicates they handle a lot of medical marijuana cases. Also, they "meant every word" of the sign.
The firm's slogan is "Defenders of Justice and Liberty". And by "justice and liberty", I think they mostly mean weed.
Diversity is Strength!
Hillary Is Literally Hitler. No, Really:
I know I've mentioned this before, but have you morons read the 25-point platform of the Nazi Party? If you take out all of the German-nationalistic stuff, you pretty much have the 2016 Democratic Party platform.
I still can't get over the cover photo of the book the Clinton-Kaine campaign published to promulgate their campaign platform:
Look at it. "Stronger Together"? You mean, stronger like a bunch of sticks tied together? Really? And Kaine's giving a full-on Nazi salute there. What were they thinking? I can only imagine if they found a photo of Trump holding his arm out like that. CNN would have to go into crisis intervention en masse.
Another photo of Sister Mary Chainsaw:
Chainsaw wielding nuns terrorize US province of Florida, cutting off hands of children guilty of profanity and similar vices. pic.twitter.com/dycBic2Ya0
She really does remind me of those formidable old-school nuns who terrorized me in Catholic primary school. They didn't have the budget for chainsaws, but one item of their standard issue was a heavy rosary they could twirl around like numchucks, and don't you dare get caught talking in class, because whap!
Unlike many other Catholic grade schools, the one I attended did not have capital corporal punishment, but that didn't stop an angry nun from yanking you by the ear, the hair, or by your shirt collar. In the 3rd and 4th grade, I was classified as a Disciplinary Problem, who has a Smart Mouth, who Disrupts Class and who Always Wastes His Time, so I experienced all of this first hand. And let me tell you, you haven't gone to Catholic school until you've had a furious nun grab a handful of your shirt collar up around the back of your neck and perp walk you to the principal's office.
Dumb Tweet of the Week(end):
One of my post campaign rituals: Every month or so, I rewatch Kate McKinnon as Hillary singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and I cry.
Cubism. I guess. He was also associated with Dadaism, but damned if I know the difference. I do like this piece...it's interesting and not designed to shock. Or maybe it is and I'm too bourgeois to know any better.
[Platinum membership holders see the 3D Sistine Chapel]
Good morning kids. As we wave goodbye to summer and head into fall this week, things seem to be relatively quiet; only a race riot in St. Louis, four American coeds getting acid thrown in their face and three more hurricanes brewing out in the Atlantic. So, yeah, pretty quiet.
First up, it's dangerous enough traveling in Europe but what the hell could possibly warrant traveling to Marseille? It's a dump, it's got a reputation for being sketchy and now it has a very large and dangerous Muslim presence. Next, a second night of protests in St. Louis over the acquittal of a cop accused of murdering a black suspect has devolved into a full-on riot. Thanks, Obama/Holder! In fairness, I am not up to speed on the case, but even if he was guilty as sin there is no justification for this in a civilized society. And thanks to the previous administration, our country has been so utterly poisoned that calm, rational discourse is out of the question. Actually, the victimization brainwashing has been going on for 50 years, going hand in hand with the dissolution of family, faith and culture. Obama/Holder were only in a position to just exploit it.
The UN will have it's annual gathering of the General Assembly this week where no doubt the usual gang of thugs, scum, mental defectives and tyrants will be on our soil to bash America and no doubt Jooz as the root cause of all the world's problems. But this time, we have President Trump who will give them the truth, good and hard. Hopefully Stephen Miller has helped craft a stemwinder.
From hither and yon, there is an effort brewing to get some sort of Obamacare Repeal/Renege bill passed, this time featuring some sort of state block grant scheme. Meh. Anything that maintains the greedy hand of government is going to be mere deck chair swapping on the Titanic. And Comrade Sandersnista is hinting at splitting from the Democrats and running as an independent in 2020, to which I say, yes please!
Speaking of a gang of thugs, scum, mental defectives and tyrants, the Emmy Awards were on last night. In yet another attempt to create a narrative of national discontent and hatred against this president and his agenda, last night's puerile, pornographic display was an indication of the complete disconnect between the self-styled "elites" and the American people. The other week when Ace implored us to step away and find something positive to occupy our time with, one of the best things is to cut the friggin' cable. The results are truly liberating.
Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.
As you move through life, set aside good ideas and give them to others to encourage and inspire. Peter J. Daniels
Quote II
Culture is to make a nice drinking bowl from one's enemy's skull. Civilization is to go to prison for that. Anonymous
Quote III
The point at which life becomes 'worthless,' and the point at which the means necessary to preserve it become 'extraordinary' or 'inappropriate,' are neither set forth in the Constitution nor known to the nine Justices of this Court any better than they are known to nine people picked at random from the Kansas City telephone directory...[therefore] even when it is demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that a patient no longer wishes certain measures to be taken to preserve her life, it is up to the citizens of Missouri to decide, through their elected representatives, whether that wish will be honored. Antonin Scalia Cruzan v. Missouri Department of Health
Quote IV
Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. Oscar Wilde
In California, an employee at a Buffalo Wild Wings muted the national anthem playing before a Monday Night NFL game despite protests from the customers. He blamed “company policy” on during down the anthem, because it was too controversial.
WICHITA, Kan., Sept. 14, 2017 — Administrators at Wichita State University have reversed course after launching a Title IX investigation into a fraternity for hanging a banner outside their fraternity house that read “New Members Free House Tours!” An administrator initially justified the investigation, saying, “I think we’re all a little more sensitive because of the statements Betsy DeVos made” about Title IX enforcement the previous week.
A Nevada high school football game turned into a chaotic scene as two teams broke into a brawl that had to be stopped with police and pepper spray.
Tensions were already high at the Basic High School homecoming game Friday hosting Canyon Springs, when the heated game turned into a near riot, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
As an official I've never seen anything close to this. Plenty of blame to go around, coaches, parents, players and maybe even the officials.
*****
“We apologize to everyone affected,” Smith wrote in an op-ed posted to USA Today’s website Sept. 12. “This is the most humbling moment in our 118-year history.”NO SHIT.
Equifax Inc. said two of its senior executives are leaving as the credit-reporting company faces mounting public anger for losing data on 143 million Americans in one of the biggest cyberattacks in history.
The ONT wonders what the size of their golden parachutes are?
“Another attack in London by a loser terrorist. These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!” Trump tweeted.
“When Sarah Huckabee Sanders called for Jemele Hill to be fired by ESPN, she crossed the line and put herself in dubious legal territory,” Jon Cooper, Chairman of the Democratic Coalition, said in a statement. “Even in Donald Trump’s America, there’s still such a thing as freedom of speech. For Sanders to publicly call for the dismissal of a Trump critic is bizarre and disturbing, to say the least. If anyone is to be fired, it should be her.”
Since I'm not employed by the WH may I say, Piss off Jon Cooper?
This bill would also add to the list of misdemeanors, the conviction for which is subject to the prohibition on possessing a firearm within 10 years of the conviction, the above-referenced interference with the exercise of civil rights, as specified. Because a violation of this provision would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
So, a Californian convicted of a misdemeanor “hate crime” stands to lose their guns and gun rights for 10 years. What could possibly go wrong?
ESPN has indeed lost nearly 13 million subscribers in the last six years, from its peak of 100.12 million in 2011 to 87.22 million in the most recent estimates, according to Nielsen (continued below).
While that is not good, it is not as bad as it sounds. Those are simply people who subscribe to cable and satellite services that have ESPN and does not distinguish whether or not those people were actually watching ESPN. In fact, it appears that most were not regular ESPN viewers.
*****
Smoking? Bad for you! Second hand smoke? Bad for you! Third hand smoke? C'mon Bull shit!!!
Links between disease and tobacco have been clear for half a century now, while the harmful effects of second-hand 'passive' smoking have been studied since the mid-1980s.
Now we have reason to suspect that the residue left behind by the aerosols from cigarettes on clothing and furniture can continue to affect our health, making third-hand smoke a health risk we need to start paying attention to.
*****
The ONT Musical Interlude
September 17, 1923, Born on this day in Mount Olive, Alabama, was Hank Williams (born Hiram King Williams). The American singer-songwriter and musician is regarded as one of the most important country music artists of all time. Williams recorded 35 singles (five released posthumously) that would place in the Top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 11 that ranked No.1. During his last years Williams's consumption of alcohol, morphine and painkillers severely compromised his professional life. Williams died aged 29 on January 1, 1953. via thisdayinmusic.com
The first study, led by Dr. Bradley Herrin, a pediatrician at the Yale School of Medicine, concluded that the age a child is injured by a gun is closely related to where they live — specifically, in an urban or rural area. A summary of the study, "Hospitalizations for Firearm Injuries in Children and Adolescents in the U.S.: Rural Versus Urban," will be presented Monday, Sept. 18, at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition in Chicago.
Using statistics compiled by the Kids' Inpatient Database, which contains information on hospital stays for those younger than 21, researchers found older teens (those between 15 and 19) living in urban areas were the ones most likely to be hospitalized for gun injuries, but among younger children (ages 5 to 14) the rate of hospitalization was higher in rural areas.
Bluebell, Weasel, and the rest of the staff of the vast bureaucracy that is Moron Cookbook Inc. have been doing a huge amount of work on editing the submitted recipes, creating a logical and pleasing template for each one, creating a legal framework for the endeavor, finding a publisher, and most of all making reservations at a dozen bars and restaurants at which the staff will drink up all of the profits in a bourbon-fueled orgy of oysters and foie gras and caviar and lobster and Kobi beef and Chateau Petrus....
In the meantime, please heed Bluebell's lovely and gentle request:
Would you mind putting something in the food thread for us about the cookbook? I've been sending out emails with questions re some of the recipes, and most have been good about getting back to me, but not all. Plus, there will be more emails yet to come, so I want to alert people. Who woulda thunk that morons writing a cookbook would be a problem?
The emails come from the Moron Cookbook gmail account that Weasel and I share.
Short version: Do what Bluebell says or she will hunt you down and skin you for your pelt.
And speaking of oysters...the reason that photo is up there is because for no particular reason I suddenly had a hankering for a dozen (or two or three) good fat briny East Coast oysters on the half-shell. No idea why. Maybe I dreamed of them, forgot my dream, but it was hovering just outside my consciousness?
So what food or drink jumps up and reminds you that, "Damnit, I haven't some in a very long time!"
Mine is usually oysters or fried chicken or a good braised meat like lamb shanks. But I am also not above meandering down to McDonald's for a sausage-egg-n-cheese biscuit.
Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but endives are great in salads. I mean, it's not bacon, so why bother? But here is an Endive Salad Recipe from Eat Dangerously, which is a fun placed I have linked before.
Endives are sort of bitter, but not too bitter, and they have a great texture when raw. There is also a fun but sort of odd dish with endives, gruyere, ham and bechamel.
Yes, that was one of the foods I ate as a child. But I put my foot down after I tried calf brains. I think I am still traumatized.
******
Here's a very nice recipe for Simple Grilled Fish with Basil from Hunter-Angler-Gardener-Cook, which is an earnest but fun website that has some really interesting recipes, and his take on food is refreshing.
Maybe I am not as good a cooking technician as I think I am, but grilling fish is a tough one for me. Anyone have any tips?
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Crispy Pan Potatoes
It's a pretty straightforward recipe to which I would add more butter and perhaps some heavy cream. But what caught my eye was the clever presentation. Standing the potato slices on edge looks great!
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This recipe was given to me by a neighbor who served it at a Christmas party several years ago. It is good. Very, very good. My neighbor quite rudely moved to North Carolina, so I now have to bake this for myself instead of mooching off of her whenever she baked one.
Chocolate Velvet Cake
4 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, broken into ½" pieces
6 Tbl. unsalted butter
3 Tbl. flour
3 eggs, separated
¼ cup sugar
Prepare, for one recipe an 8" or for a double recipe a 9-10" spring-form pan by cutting a wax paper bottom, spraying with cooking oil then dusting with cocoa. Set aside.
Melt chocolate and butter over low heat stirring constantly until melted. Remove from heat and immediately stir in flour, set aside to cool.
Beat egg whites until foamy throughout and gradually add the sugar, continue beating until mixture form s soft peaks, set aside.
Temper egg yolks by adding 1-2 Tbl. of slightly cooled chocolate and mix well. Add this chocolate/egg mixture to the slightly cooled chocolate and mix until well incorporated.
Fold whites into chocolate mixture and pour into prepared spring form pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes for single recipe or 30 minutes for double recipe, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. The top of the cake will rise in the oven and then fall and crack as it cools.
Remove form pan. If the top has cracked substantially, I usually try to peel the biggest pieces off. Invert onto platter and glaze with the recipe below.
NOTE: this recipe is best when doubled.
Chocolate Glaze
4 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, broken into ½" pieces
3 Tbl. water
3 Tbl. unsalted butter
Heat water until just ready to boil, remove from heat and add chocolate pieces. Stir until melted, add butter and let cool slightly. Glaze the cake. This recipe doubles nicely. Glaze will run over sides of cake, but, there is not enough to completely cover sides as a frosting would.
[Neighbor's comments]
The above is Kathryn’s recipe. Here are my annotations for more excellence.
1) Get a springform pan that has a glass bottom so you can see if the cake is coming out alright. You can run a knife under the glass to avoid unseemly potholes in the cake.
2) Always double the recipe for the cake AND the glaze. You’ll be glad you did!
3) I use semi-sweet chocolate for the cake and bitter-sweet for the glaze.
4) For the glaze, use coffee instead of water. You’ll be buzzing all night!
5) Be careful that absolutely no yolk gets into the egg whites. AND be sure you temper the egg yolks well or it will curdle.
6) My oven seems to take longer than the recipe directs. Test it with a knife, but don’t let it get too dry, certainly.
7) After you’ve put the cake on a fancy-schmancy plate, you can put some cocoa in a little sieve and decorate the plate around the cake. Also, it’s really good if you put fresh raspberries on top of the cake or around the side of it. Or make up something else you’d like to put on top. A beacon, perhaps? Your initials in edible gold leaf? It’s all good.
And now it is time to determine who is worthy of this cake. Take it to the home of him or her. But do not – DO NOT – take it to the home of someone who is unworthy. You will live to regret it.
Yeah...she was a good neighbor!
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Food and cooking tips, great sourdough baguettes, spare bottles of Oban Scotch Whisky , fresh Morels and other goodies such as fresh-killed possum: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com
Two years after the nuclear deal was signed by Iran and world powers, the Islamic Republic is reported to have boosted its financial support to Hezbollah to $800 million a year, a dramatic increase from the $200m. it was said to be giving its proxy when sanctions were in place.
It was absolute insanity to release funding to Iran, who has been supporting terrorism around the world, specifically targeted against America and Israel. Obama and his handlers were either profoundly ignorant of the reality of Iran's support for terror, or were well aware and simply chose to ignore it in some vanity-driven desire to be seen by the international peace community as important players in World PeaceTM. There is a third possibility, that they knew quite well that Hezbollah would be energized and funded, and that was part of the plan.
According to IDF assessments, while Hezbollah has increased its military capabilities due to its fighting in Syria, the group has spread its troops across the entire Middle East and is hurting financially.
The finances of the Lebanese Shi'ite group, designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by dozens of countries around the globe, also has been hit hard due to years of sanctions by the United States.
Well then, since Hezbollah has been hurt by our sanctions, let's continue Obama's waiver!
The US and European countries lifted sanctions against Iran in January 2016, releasing roughly $100 billion in assets after international inspectors found that Iran had dismantled large parts of its nuclear program. According to US media, officials say President Donald Trump is ready to extend those waivers that were issued under the Obama administration.
Breitbart Had A Point: Why You Should Read The Comments: Example #43,091
—CBD
Memorize this and recite it to your liberal friends when they wax poetic about the joys of open borders and Dreamers and Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, and the rest of the progressive cant that is in reality a thinly veiled attempt to destroy American Exceptionalism.
Welcome one of your newest fellow citizens. Let's say just for the sake of discussion that this is a hypothetical scenario:
46 year old woman. Gets pregnant. No father listed on birth certificate. Unemployed, gets no prenatal care, presents to hospital in labor, baby born slightly premature and very small size. Has Down syndrome. Has significant medical abnormalities. Will probably be hospitalized for weeks to months in intensive care. May need major surgery. Mother speaks not a word of English. Immigration status? Who knows, not allowed to ask. Mom on Medicaid. Baby on Medicaid.
Where is the responsibility of this woman who is old enough to know better? Where is the responsibility of the father who gets his pleasure with no skin in the game? Where is the responsibility of this mother's nation of origin who outsourced her dependency onto us? Where is the concern from our politicians for the taxpayers, the hardworking citizens of this country who are going to pay for this child's medical care for years to come? Where is a simple thank you America, for being kind hearted and generous. But no, the Dreamers have a dream. Screw the taxpayer and his/her dreams. Screw the future of the taxpayer's child and his/her dreams. This woman and her child are entitled to the sweat of your brow, comrade!
Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, where men are men, all the 'ettes are gorgeous, safe spaces are underneath your house and are used as protection against actual dangers, like natural disasters, or Literally Hitler, and special snowflakes do not last. And unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants which I can't tell if these guys are a barbershop quartet or curling team.
Pic Note
You're going to want to click on the pic to see the larger version as the old b&w photo looks very impressive. This fine old library has unfortunately long since been demolished.
Hillary's Book, Part Thrieuuxx
So from the online published excerpts and quotes from interviews Cankles has given this week, there's nothing new here, no surprises, no astounding revelations, no insight, no self-awareness, no thing. It's just what we would have expected from her: a boringly dull, whining, self-pitying, woulda coulda shoulda blame-a-thon that has all of the wit, intelligence, and readability of a cinder block.
My prediction is that it will all but be forgotten in a month. Like her other books. Oh, I know that Hillary's peeps at the NY Times will figure out which bookstores to interview so they will be able to guarantee a place for it on their "bestseller" list, but nobody will care.
“Attempting to define reality is a core feature of authoritarianism. This is what the Soviets did when they erased political dissidents from historical photos. This is what happens in George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, when a torturer holds up four fingers and delivers electric shocks until his prisoner sees five fingers as ordered. The goal is to make you question logic and reason and to sow mistrust toward exactly the people we need to rely on: our leaders, the press, experts who seek to guide public policy based on evidence, ourselves.”
So let me get this straight, Orwell wrote 1984 because he thought we needed to trust "our leaders" *more*? Is she *seriously* trying to make that argument? That's monumentally dumb. That's like reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and claiming that it supports slavery.
Hrothgar sent me this article, a bleak description of a tubercular George Orwell struggling to complete 1984 before he died or became too ill to write. As Her Thighness ascertained, he really had a strong desire to communicate how we should all trust the government and our political leaders. After all, what could possibly go wrong?
It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®
CAPNOMANCY is divination by examining the patterns made by smoke.
Usage: The US Dept. of Capnomancy dates back to FDR's "brain trust" and the New Deal.
I’m pleased to announce another new NR podcast: The Great Books. This one, as the old English paint commercial has it, “does exactly what it says on the tin.” Each week, Hillsdale’s John J. Miller will join a professor to discuss one of the great works of the Western literary canon. This week, it’s Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Next week, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The week after, Xenophon’s The Expedition of Cyrus. And so on. Each episode is around half an hour — perfect for your drive to work or trip to the gym.
You can go to this page to either play the current podcast or check out the various download and subscription options.
Next up, a book report from Hilary Clinton about how Franz Kafka's The Trial taught her that everything will work out for the best if we all just submit to faceless government bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, Hillary will soon relate how reading Animal Farm helped her to see that many wonderful things can be accomplished if we all work together for the common good.
Got an interesting book recommendation from long-time 'ette shibumi for Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson. It's on old, obscure book that perhaps not many have heard about.
Lord of the World is a 1907 dystopian science fiction novel [1] by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson that centers upon the reign of the Anti-Christ and the End of the World. It has been called prophetic by Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.[2]
Shibumi writes:
In many ways, it can be seen as Catholics vs. the Non-religious. However, I'd basically say it's the Religious vs. Statist Humanism. It's terrifying insofar that as I'm readying it, I can see the people I know who are not religious turning into the Statist Humanists in the book. In fact, if you simply changed some words and references around, it could easily been seen as a treatise of what could happen today.
In any case, I'd highly, highly recommend it for the horde, simply because of the religious aspects to it (Catholic, but relevant to all Christians) as well as the fact that we're seeing many around us turn to the State for meaning and purpose, rather than God. And it's absolutely terrifying...[W]ritten in 1907, [it] is relevant today. Like Orwell.
She also says "there is Latin at the end, so be prepared. I literally had to go online and look up the phrases to get the final meaning."
You can get the Kindle version for free. I assume it would be also available on Gutenberg, but I didn't check.
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A lurking moron recommended Things Worth Fighting For, a collection of the writings of journalist Michael Kelly, who has killed in 2003 while covering the Iraq War. "The chapter Ted Kennedy On the Rocks is worth the price of the book alone." No Kindle version available, but used copies of this book are available for as low as $1.60.
The Ted Kennedy essay is available here. He really was a disgusting pig whom the press pretty much covered up for for most of his entire career.
Books By Morons
Lisa Mathisen has published the 7th volume of her short stories. Glimpse: BOT is
A Sci-Fi Glimpse of Possible Futures Imagine a world where aliens finally make contact….via text. Where biotechnology and cryogenics go wild, then insane. Where geeks save the planet and the moon is a burial plot……….. “I looked at the long list of Sci-Fi subgenres and began mixing them to create my own style. There are terrifying musings in my campy 1950’s retro and farce in my apocalyptic scenes...BOT is a shiny steel android with heart; unfathomable technology tripping over a stone and humanity reaching into the universe; tongue firmly in cheek.”
Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.
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So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.
What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.
Marco Pierre White Jr has issued a grovelling apology after he posted a disgusting tweet in the wake of Friday morning's Parsons Green terror attack.
Within hours of the blast that injured at least 29 people, the son of celebrity chef Marco Pierre White tweeted: 'Parsons Green tube station this morning was targeted by terrorists, this is why I don't take the tube #TheRichDontDie (sic).'
The insensitive message sparked a furious backlash online.
A federal judge issued a ruling Friday that blocks the Justice Department from requiring cities to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in order to be considered eligible for federal law enforcement grants.
The ruling blocks nationwide enforcement of two of the three new conditions the Justice Department sought to impose on jurisdictions seeking funds through the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, which doles out nearly $400 million to state and local agencies each year.
Unelected, lifetime appointed King judge strikes again at the Rule of Law.
The nation’s endless search for proof of Bigfoot’s existence may soon come to an end.
A North Carolina-based wife and mother has home brewed a spray that she says can attract any Bigfoot within a mile and a half.
Sold at $7 a bottle, the “environmentally friendly” Bigfoot Juice also doubles as a bug spray, said creator Allie Megan Webb, who runs Happy Body Care out of Marion. She created it sitting at her kitchen table.
The ONT wonders if Mike Hammer has a bottle or two sitting around.
Gone are the days when sports team giveaways were limited to T-shirts, bobbleheads, free-sandwich coupons and the like.
The tens of thousands of fans entering M&T Bank Stadium for the Ravens’ home opener against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday will receive free DNA test kits.
It’s an approach stretching the usual giveaway model, and likely to generate fan buzz. The club calls it “one of the most innovative events a partner has ever spearheaded.”
The security officer, Brent Patrick Ahlers, 25, of St. Louis Park, was arrested Wednesday. He has been charged with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor, and will likely be released from the Ramsey County jail after being booked and fingerprinted, police said.
“Last night I was talking to you about an incident that shocked the community,” Sgt. Mike Ernster said at a short news conference Wednesday night.
“It had basically 1,800 students held captive in their dorm rooms at St. Catherine’s, it had residents of the Mac-Groveland and Highland Park communities fearing they would be hurt in their homes.”
Ernster said 55 police officers and four K-9s, as well as a State Patrol aircraft, joined in the search for a suspect on Tuesday night. Scanner reports described a man in a navy blue sweatshirt and black jeans. Ahlers was taken to Regions Hospital with noncritical injuries.
Aren't spiders just adorable? Well ok, in most cases they're bloody terrifying, but that image might change when you take a closer look. As close as to where their feet should be, where you'll find that they have...paws!
In more scientific terms, a spider's "paw" is called a tarsus, and it's only one of eight parts that make up a rather complicated leg. Just like cats or dogs, spiders also have claws attached to the paws, but in their case, legs also work as ears and nose picking up subtle changes in the air to hear and recognize smells.
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Nothing ever good happens after Midnight or 2 AM especially when it comes to lack of sex. Genius Award Winner.
Saturday Evening Movie Thread 09-16-2017 [Hosted By: TheJamesMadison]
—OregonMuse
I Demand Order!
Screenplays are structure, and that’s all they are. The quality of writing—which is crucial in almost every other form of literature—is not what makes a screenplay work. -William Goldman, writer of The Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
I largely agree with this sentiment, but I think that Mr. Goldman oversells his idea a little bit. A well-structured story with terrible dialogue, poor characters, and an inflated sense of self-importance is going to be a hard thing to read or watch. I’m sure he meant that structure is more than just a very basic concept, but something that includes a whole lot more. And yet in my mind you might as well say, "Screenplays are movies. " It’s so expansive to the point of meaninglessness.
Still, structure is really important to a movie. With bad structure, well-written characters and great dialogue become individual elements in a confusing mess of a story.
Moron 'ibguy' sent me the video by Film School Rejects that outlines their Top 10 Best Structured Movies of all time. It’s not really that, though, it’s a list of top examples of 10 different structures. I found the video quite interesting and would recommend a watch. It also meshed well with some thoughts I had already been developing.
Structure is a rather large narrative concept and can be hard to pin down in a definition. You can approach it from a 30,000-foot level that looks at just large elements like acts of a story, or you could take it down to a much finer thing and talk about what specific pieces of information get revealed in what order and when.
In terms of the larger view, there are things like number of acts to consider and whether it should be told linearly or non-linearly, whether it circle back on itself, how many stories there are, and how they interact.
So, for this week, I’m just going to focus on the most common of structures in modern moviemaking: The 3-Act Linear Structure.
Beginning, Middle, and End
Why does the 3-Act structure get used so much in Hollywood? I think it’s for 3 reasons: it’s easy, it’s simple, and it’s effective.
(click for slightly larger version)
What does that visual representation of the structure say? It says to me that there’s an implied escalation that continues from the opening moments to the climax in Act Three. Stakes continue to grow, risks continue to build, and situations become more dire.
Digging in a little deeper we can see the definitions of the three acts: Set Up, Confrontation (I’ve always called it Escalation), and Resolution. What happens in each?
In Set Up, we establish characters, relationships, and themes. These are the scenes where we see our main characters living their daily lives as they always have, where characters establish how they view one another before any sort of complications arise.
Confrontation (or Escalation) is when the plot really gets introduced. The plot being the complications that remove the characters from their established routines. These are generally where things like the bad guy shows up and takes someone hostage, or a wife discovers that her beloved husband has a terrible secret.
Resolution is where the plot comes to its conclusion. This is usually where the dramatic climax occurs, where things like protagonists and antagonists come into direct conflict and settle the central conflict of the plot.
All of that settles pretty easily into the very basic concepts of Beginning, Middle, and End.
Par Example
Think of almost any major motion picture of the past 40 years. Let’s look at Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan because, well, why not?
Set Up: Establishes Kirk, Khan, supporting characters as well as basic motivations for the major players. Savak, for example, is a driven Vulcan who doesn’t quite understand the No Win Scenario of the Kobayashi Maru nor Kirk’s seeming nonchalance around the whole endeavor. Khan’s hatred of Kirk is shown as well as his basic predicament. Arguably, the first act comes to an end with Khan capturing the U.S.S. Reliant and Kirk taking the Enterprise out of spacedock.
Confrontation: Khan attacks Kirk, Kirk barely escapes (in one of the most satisfying escapes because both opponents are actually very intelligent) while subtly revealing Khan’s weakness (which is never made explicit), and Kirk meets with his old flame and son, complicating matters emotionally. This act ends as Kirk explains his approach to the No-Win Scenario (“I don’t like to lose”).
Resolution: Kirk and Khan face off again, Kirk ultimately triumphs, but not before Spock sacrifices himself to save the ship, recalling dialogue and sentiments from earlier in the film.
Out of all of the movie’s strengths, it’s perfect construction is one to almost marvel at because it seems so easy while watching. All of the pieces are introduced quickly and effectively. The clashes of the second act are impactful, changing the complete direction of the plot. The third act comes to a satisfying denouement where the antagonist shines brightly while the protagonist completes a change. When done well, the three-act structure really can hold wonders.
Conclusion
Nobody knows anything...... Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one. -William Goldman
I think the appeal to Hollywood, an industry that spends tens and hundreds of millions of dollars on individual products, is obvious. When you can’t predict much in terms of what will work for audiences, what will make money and what won’t, it’s nice to have something reliable on which to fall back on consistently.
Hollywood has a hard time predicting which heroes and conflicts will appeal to an audience, done in which styles. All of these preferences change rapidly, especially while considering the average 2-year cycle for a movie to go from concept to finished product. Hollywood knows that the three-act Structure is something that audiences don’t actively reject.
So, have you noticed the single most common structure in movies before? Is it something that you notice while watching? Do you have any favorite examples where the structure was used most effectively?
Movies I Saw This Week: Creed (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 3.5/4) Poster blurb: “Effectively a remake of Rocky, but a damn fine one.” [Amazon Prime]
The Overnight (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) “An interesting little movie that’s equal parts intentionally uncomfortable and clear headed.” [Netflix Instant]
Inside Llewyn Davis (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) “A very funny little character piece with wonderful performances and a great sense of the time and place.” [Amazon Prime]
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 3.5/4) “A complex portrait of an artist that effectively uses his own works to highlight a view of who he was and what he thought.” ["Library"]
Night People (Netflix Rating 3/5 | Quality Rating 2/4) “Middling Cold War tale which can’t decide if it’s a hard edged morality play or a typical procedural.” ["Library"]
The Stoning of Soraya M. (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) “A good portrait of a terrifying event.” [Netflix DVD]
The Beaver (Netflix Rating 2/5 | Quality Rating 1.5/4) “Disjointed to the point of distraction, but with some solid performances.” [Netflix Instant]
In the Shadow of the Moon (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 3.5/4) “An engrossing look at the Apollo program from the men in the capsules.” [Amazon Prime]
American Ultra (Netflix Rating 2/5 | Quality Rating 2/4) “A real hodgepodge of tones and genres that never finds its feet.” [Amazon Prime]
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) “A comedy classic. Absolutely hilarious from beginning to end.” [Amazon Prime]
Contact
Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.
I’ve also archived all the old posts here, by request. I’ll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ.
Good afternoon morons and moronettes, and welcome to the Saturday Afternoon Chess/Open Thread, the only AoSHQ thread with content specifically for all of us chess nerds who pay homage in the temple of Caïssa, goddess of the chessboard. Also, dress pr0n. Each week, I pick out a few lovely, modest, conservative dresses for the 'ettes to admire and appraise. And, for those of you who aren't nerdly enough for chess, you can use this thread to talk about checkers, or other games, or politics, or whatever you wish, only please try to keep it civil. Nobody wants to get in the middle of a food fight on a Saturday afternoon. Unless you're starving.
Problem 1 - White To Play (177)
Hint: White mates in 2
r3rn2/p7/3qp2k/1p5n/3P1p1p/1PPQ1P2/P1B2P2/6RK w - - 0 1
This is one of those problems I would never be able to see OTB, but only by working through the position a few times. Maybe a GM could see it, though.
White is about to queen one of his advanced pawns, but his King is positioned poorly. Black takes advantage of this by playing
1...Kf2!
This sets up a mating threat. If now 2.d7, then 2...Rg5 followed by 3...Rh5#.
2.Kh2!
Now Black can't play 2...Rg5 because 3.c8=Q Rh5+ 4.Qh3 or instead 3.Kh3 f5 4.Kh4 and Black has pretty much hosed himself. Instead, Black plays
2...f5!
This moves cuts off g4 as an escape square for White's king and also blocks the c8-h3 diagonal in case of White moving c8=Q.
3.Kh3
Trying to escape via h5
3...Rg1
Oops, that won't work, let's try attacking the rook
4.Kh2 Rg5
There's no stopping 5...Rh5#.
My chess app saw all that and instead played 3.c8=Q Rxc8 4.Kh3 Rd8 which avoids the immediate mate but he loses most of his material doing so.
Hope to see you all next week!
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Note: that cryptic line of letters and numbers you see underneath each board diagram is a representation of the position in what is known as "Forsyth-Edwards Notation", or F.E.N. It's actually readable by humans. Most computer applications nowadays can read FEN, so those of you who may want to study the position, you can copy the line of FEN and paste into your chess app and it should automatically recreate the position on its display board. Or, Windows users can just "triple click" on it and the entire line will be highlighted so you can copy and past it into your chess app.
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So that about wraps it up for this week. Chess thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to my yahoo address: OregonMuse little-a-in-a-circle yahoo dott com.
Every time you are about to throw the towel in on the human race, a nice story comes along. h/t Hank Curmudgeon. Thanks Hank.
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Jane D'oh sent in the following photo and letter from her minister.
Monday, September 11, 2017 4:15 PM
It appears the worst of the storm is over. However, our island is continuing to receive gusts of wind and is under a tornado watch. From all reports our island came through a lot better than we did last year during Matthew. There are reports of some flooding and trees are down across the island, but from what I heard, there is no catastrophic damage. Power is out and, according to Georgia Power, electricity will probably not be restored this week. The church and offices remain closed.
I have been in contact with most staff members and all are safe. I am planning on heading back tomorrow, depending on road conditions.
Please keep your eye on Hurricane Jose and pray for those who were slammed with this storm. We were spared from the worst when the storm moved up the west coast of Florida, but others were not as fortunate.
As evident by the photo above, we did have a visitor at church. A lot of Florida Gators have sought safety in Georgia and this one appears to be seeking some solace too. Thanks to *************** for the photo.
I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
-Psalm 69:30
Stay safe and may God's blessings be with you.
In Christian Service,
Pastor ---------------------
-------------Presbyterian Church
Thanks Jane. Glad you GA Morons are safe and sound.
Found on the double yellow lines of the hwy I live off of.... Cars off the road everywhere. They were all honking. He is mostly deaf so they had little effect on his behavior. I have 3 other found me dogs and will send you pics of them when I figure out how to. Love Ace and all of his merry morons and love to see the moron's pets
Via a 2nd email from pamazon
Jack is the Brindle whatever dog on the left. I call HER Jack because I cannot hear myself calling "here Anubis". White Dog (I didn't name her) on the right looking Japanese. She does this squint thing that cracks me up. No insult to Asians of any variety.
I am pamazon. (before Beso's made me wary of the name).
Some very lucky dogs. They sure seem to be happy and content.
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I'm a long time lurker and the Pet Thread is one of my favorite features - thanks so much for doing it!
Here are my two baby's: the Orange Tabby is BC which is short for Baby Cakes - long story how he, yes he, ended up with that name and not entirely my fault. To help ease the pain and masculinity crisis due to the name I call him BC. He was abandoned in the woods around my job 5 1/2 years ago. I saw him one day and we brought him in, took care of him and he chose me to be his human. I'd never had a pet of my own before but literally got the most loving cat ever in him. Here he is laying on a just-delivered-gift waiting on me to unload it so he can get in the box, natch.
The Calico is Dimples - named after one of my student's with autism who loved BC and knew him from his time at my work place. She was my neighbor's cat as she had adopted him. She was left all alone after he passed away a couple of years ago and I coaxed her in to my house to take care of her. She has been my sweet, funny girl ever since and I couldn't imagine not having her. She is very gifted at chasing and catching her own tail, she wants you to know.
Thanks for letting me share and again for the Pet Thread! - Cindi T.
Hope those cats know they have it made with you Cindi T.
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Mostly lurker sometimes commentator WeeKreekFarmGirl especially in the gardening thread. This is our gang of four.
First up is our newest member, Gigi, who just turned one. Rescued from a box in downtown Phoenix. We've had her for 6.5 months. She was so shy and withdrawn when we got her, she didn't even know how to run. Now she likes to run all the time, much to my dismay at 6am before coffee.
Then there is Stinky, don't judge, when we got her she was very small for her age and was being pushed around by the other rescue cats, she only felt safe in the litter box and hung out there to be by herself so when we got her all she did was eat for the first four months, any time you touched her she would pass gas so we got to calling her Stinky and the name stuck.
Katie is the one "in jail" we have had her for 17 years, my husband says she is our only true "rescue" as we found her on the streets of Hollywood, 4 months old full of fleas, ticks and mites. Still going strong, we keep telling her "four more years" and she keeps doing it.
Then we have Binny, he was named Clooney at the animal rescue, we assume because he is salt and pepper handsome but my husband only calls him Clooney when he is bad, otherwise he is Binny which was short for Looney Bin when he was a puppy. He is my rockstar, guards me where ever I go and has saved the lives of small dogs by warding off rampant coyotes. He is with us 7 years tomorrow.
Lastly, a shout out to our dearly departed and greatly missed Trooper. Two years before he died he was diagnosed with a thyroid issue consequently his fur never grew back. He was destined to spend his final years looking like the first day back at school wearing doggie Ugg boots. Still a handsome boy though and made it to almost 17 years which is pretty darn good for an Akita/Border Collie mix. Loyal beyond belief.
WeeKreekFarmGirl
Quite the household you have there. They appear to be terribly abused. ;)
*****
Quite the group this week!!! Thank you for all of the submissions that keep coming. We appreciate your patience as we get to your pets. If you have tip, story, photo or something interesting, you can submit them to petmorons at g mail dot com.
Here's hoping you have a wonderful weekend!!!
[Addendum] [CBD]
Here is Jay Guevara's Max, as an absolutely adorable puppy! (Max passed away this morning)
Saturday Gardening Thread: The Harvest Continues [KT]
—Open Blogger
Hello, gardeners and those who would like to make friends with a gardener about now. There are some good things coming out of gardens this time of year. Above, a peach my niece and her husband grew in their yard in Utah.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the tomato harvest is so good that they are throwing tomatoes at people.
"Vegetable Justice". I am still pondering that. The photo is from the Minnesota Renaissance Fair. Gordon writes in response to my query about the identity of the target:
He's an employee. He insults you as you throw. He was gentle on the insults with the little girl, but he still did it. With adults he is offensive.
I missed seeing a report from Pat* last week. Bet some other people did, too. Here's why:
From Moronette Pat*
My husband occasionally writes for the blog Ricochet. We were invited to their recent gathering in Montana. We attended, which is why I didn't post last week. We didn't harvest for a total of 8 days. I asked four neighbors to go harvest my garden while I was gone.
They didn't.
I photographed the results. In total, we harvested 9 cantaloupes (2 others were rotted), over 7.5 pounds of red raspberries (most just fit for steam juicing), . . .
a few late-season strawberries, two 1# salad tubs filled with beans (most ended up as compost), partial tubs of Sungold and Early Girl tomatoes, a few good Cherokee Purple heirloom tomatoes (most ended up as compost), and two nearly full 2-gallon buckets of Roma tomatoes. The sprigs of spearmint represent an *entire garden cart* full of it that I had to trim off, just to get the plant pack in bounds.
Not included: the *23.5 inch zucchini* I had to throw in the compost.
Pat's neighbors don't know what they are missing. I hate hearing about the part of the harvest that went past its prime.
Getting down to the nitty gritty
We also have new information related to past threads today. Remember not to comment on old threads. From last week's gardening thread:
Tomatoes
Geoffb5 has checked in with details on those pretty tomatoes he grew on those gorgeous plants:
For slicing I like the Kellogg (orange) best as it is very meaty and not too acid. Lemon Boy (yellow) and Black Krim (purple) are next. For salads the Early Girl is good, I also use the bigger ones on BLTs along with Better Boy. The disappointment this year was the Big Rainbow. Lots of smallish tomatoes but very watery. When I got the seedlings what I probably was thinking of was Big Pineapple and bought the wrong one. There's always next year.
Kellog's Breakfast seems to be developing a following among The Horde. I am not real crazy about the bicolor types like Big Rainbow in our climate, either. Haven't seen many comments about Brandywine this year. Maybe as winter rolls in, we can make up a regional tomato wish-list or something. Maybe one for peppers, too. Anybody grow Hatch chilis this year? (h/t Sarah Hoyt)
I still think Geoffb5's container plants look especially lush. I would be interested in learning some growing details.
Raised Bed Gardening
In response to my blegging, Lawrence Larson has provided some really useful details on the classy raised bed garden and veggies pictured in last week's thread:
Thanks for sharing our submission. We've been growing veggies for a long while, but I make no claim to be a green thumb. Our biggest lesson learned over the years is to plant zucchini and tomatoes only. They love the weather and it's nearly impossible to kill 'em. We've never had much luck or good output from anything else we've tried and we've got lots of great recipes for them both zuccs and tomatoes together and separately.
We built the garden in a "C" shape to be able to get access to all the plants without having to climb into the bed. We back filled it with several yards of high grade top soil--didn't even bother to mix in fertilizer. The bed is 18" above our alluvial clay-like soil so the drainage is excellent. It's plumbed for automatic watering with mini-bubblers instead of fixed flow emitters. The mini-bubblers are great for varying the amount of water delivered plants on the same circuit.
The zucchini and crooked neck ended up completely overflowing the beds. We were constantly pruning back large leaves between the roots and the fruit so that the plants energy was focused on flowering instead of growth.
I honestly don't know if anything we did was the key to our success. It could have simply been the whether this spring and summer. It was a wonderful summer of home-grown produce.
We would like to see a recipe or two. Any thoughts about winter gardening in that new bed? Veggies (broccoli, salad greens) or flowers?
Invasive Species
Turns out that Todd was way ahead of us on the identity of the Tree of Heaven.
New to me is the idea that an invasive species can be a tree, not just a tiny weed. If caught small, you can just pull it out of the ground. Larger specimens must be treated with natural or chemical herbicides. TOH doesn't live forever, a tree will will eventually die. I had a dead tree removed in the corner of my lot, but it was in my pre-TOH-radar days, so I don't know if it was a TOH or something else. Once you notice TOH, you'll have a permanent TOH radar in your brain and you see it everywhere. I know it grows all over Denver, but I don't think it thrives everywhere in the USA.
Somebody in Portland agrees with you, Todd. Personally, I think that radar is also useful when invasive species that are NOT trees are small. It's discouraging that so many of them were imported on purpose. Rip 'em all out when they're little.
Hard-neck garlic and garlic scapes
If you are in the North, time may be getting short for planting hard-neck garlic. Getting late for ordering fall flower bulbs. Earlier this summer, Born Free sent in some remarkable photos of hummingbirds on garlic flowers. This set me off on a little tangent regarding garlic scapes.
This week, I got a link from a surprise correspondent with more uses for garlic scapes than you could probably imagine. You can use them in flower bouquets, pickles, all kinds of dishes. Just keep scrolling. Lots of photos, and a little cooking video.
Ever considered wrapping garlic scapes in bacon? GAINZZZ-friendly.
I don't know if it was clear to me earlier that only hard-neck garlic, the kind planted in the North, produces garlic scapes. Maybe that is why I have never seen them before. Heh. For you northerners, harvesting the scapes may have the benefit of improving your garlic harvest, unless you plan to save the bulbs to re-plant next year.
Soft-neck garlic, the kind planted here in the Valley, goes in after the new year, so southerners can wait a while before planting garlic. I think there is more variation in flavors among cultivars of hard neck garlic. Some are mild. Some are anything but mild. Hard-neck garlic tends to have cloves of uniform size, while soft-neck garlic has a bunch of tiny cloves in the center. I think I remember something about baked garlic from the Food Thread. Some cultivars of hard-neck garlic are especially recommended for baking.
We have been getting some inquiries and suggestions recently about preparedness. Not all prepper stuff is yard and garden related, but some is. Would you like to see more information along these lines?
This was the first year we bought federal flood insurance, because of the possibility here in the San Joaquin Valley of a levee break. But I am not really prepared today to discuss the effects of Harvey and Irma on gardening. If you are, I would love to hear from you. I did run across this piece on cars saved from Harvey by garden blocks. Too bad about the house.
If you're wading around flood waters and run into a raft of 100,000 fire ants, your day will get considerably more complicated. The ants will board you and sting and not let go, even if you submerge. (Stings are painful, hence the name, but rarely fatal, typically if you've got an allergy to the venom.) Really, your best bet is to hit their rafts with soapy water, which breaks up the ants' waxy covering and drowns them. Otherwise, it's hard to stop these things, which have been known to float around for almost two weeks.
But should the raft make it to a dry surface, the ants form into an even more bizarre structure: a roiling, liquid Eiffel Tower. . . .
Don't give in to fire ants. Ageratum houstonianum is one flower you might say represents the "Houston spirit". It is recommended for fall. It is easy to transplant, even in bloom. Though it is usually seen as a short bedding plant, there are taller sorts that are even useful for cutting.
I think people affected by Irma are not quite ready to talk about gardening yet. I do have some thoughts on preparing for fire. I don't think there is much you can do about some of the huge wildfires we are currently seeing, but last week there was a less-huge wildfire that closed a highway I had traversed while vacationing in Utah recently. I am not aware of any friends who lost homes, but a friend of a relative did.
There was something pathetic about the real-time news reports showing homeowners training weak streams of water from garden hoses against the advancing fire, and about firefighters begging homeowners to turn their hoses and sprinklers off so that there would be sufficient water pressure for firefighters to do their job.
I noticed in news reports that one of the homes that burned flat to the ground had a swimming pool. It reminded me of reports I had seen of swimming pool fire-fighting rigs. The one I remembered had a stationary nozzle fixed to the pool. It would spray water over the owner's roof and parts of the neighbors' roofs. The one shown below is just a fire hose attached by the homeowner to his pool pump. Looks more versatile. The article from the OC Register is dated, but if you scroll through the slides, there is some interesting information. Looks like roof eaves are an area of concern. There is also a photo about some fire retardant you can spray on your house that could be refreshed by firefighters.
I have never wanted a swimming pool. But sometimes a water tank seems like a good idea. Have you been thinking about "hardening" your house and yard against disaster lately? Better done calmly than in time of disaster, I think.
Gardens of The Horde
The weather changed this week. It's actually pleasant enough to consider pulling weeds without feeling dismay. Anything going on in your yard or garden? If you have been affected by wind, fire or flood, we would like to hear from you.
If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:
I hate to break it to Misanthropic Humanitarian, but Coffee means "a person who is coughed upon".
These are new "fun words" from a Washington Post Yearly Reader Contest. Of course, WaPo is pretty good at supplying new meanings for words right in their news stories.
Doing anything interesting this weekend? Made up any new words recently?
This is by Kevin Williamson. I get the KW hate, he really is an asshole sometimes. He also has that ivory tower arrogance that is so disdained by conservatives, having it deployed in defense of conservative positions doesn't make it any better.
He's also right about 80% of the time, so I recommend you do what I do-read for the content and ignore the author.
This is a paper from The Cato Institute on the same subject. They examine the issue from the standpoints of freedom, ethics and the general welfare. Their conclusion is the same: Price gouging laws are emotional relics and they hurt the very people they are designed to help.
And finally, here's a fine fellow from Austin who decided to try and leverage his possession of a scarce commodity into doing a little gouging of his own. No word on whether anyone answered his ad.
Film at the link. I've been watching football for a long time and I've never seen a play lose this much yardage. They wound up punting on 4th and goal.
Tonight's ONT is not brought to you by anything, rather it is dedicated to the memory of my father-in law who passed away this afternoon at age 75. It's been said that we can't pick our family but we can pick our friends, but what we really can't pick is our in-laws. I am tremendously lucky, not only in having a wonderful wife, but in having awesome in-laws (and the former is most certainly due to the later). A master carpenter, Grant was the type of quite man whose rough exterior hid a wry wit and a heart of gold that made him everybody's, and I do mean everybody's, favorite “uncle” or “grandpa”. A man who worked hard every day of his life from the time he was 14 right up until he was diagnosed with the cancer that took him from us, his passing leaves a gaping hole in the lives of everyone who knew him. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. I love you dad, and I miss you already.
Chelsea Manning, the former US soldier who leaked hundreds of thousands of state secrets and served seven years in military prison, abruptly terminated a phone call with the dean of the Harvard Kennedy school in an expression of her dismay at his decision to revoke her visiting fellowship in the face of severe pressure from the CIA.
Manning ended the conversation on Thursday as the dean, Douglas Elmendorf, tried to justify to her his decision to cancel the fellowship only a day after it had been announced.
Oh, and this sweetheart, who taught at the John Jay School of Criminal Justice and bragged that he was happy to be teaching cops who would soon be "dead cops," has been suspended.
"Some of ya'll might think it sucks being an anti-fascist teaching at John Jay College but I think it’s a privilege to teach future dead cops," Isaacson tweeted on Aug. 23.
Below, the GAINZZZ thread. I don't put these up sometimes because I figure 50% or more of the readership just doesn't care, so I'm going to experiment with putting a news post and a GAINZZZ thread in one post. Comment on either (or whatever else) as you will.
I'm doing a slightly modified Stronglifts 5x5, about two months in. This means that I am still Weak AF and cannot answer the question "Bro, do you even lift?" in the affirmative yet.
I hope to be able to say "Yeah bro I do even lift" in maybe two more months.
Still, seeing some GAINZZZ. The big thing of Rippetoe's system or Stronglift's or the Starr strength system both are based on is just adding weight to the load every single time you lift. This sounds innocent enough when you're just lifting an empty bar, but starts to get daunting pretty fast.
Starting out with low weight allows you to train the form, the technique, without having to worry about thinking about it while under a heavy load. The idea is that by the time you're doing heavier work, the technique is mostly hard-wired into your brain/muscle memory.
Rippetoe's program, by the way, is really similar, except he calls for the powerclean instead of a row. I didn't want to do that, because the powerclean seemed scary to me.
However, if you watch this video of Rip teaching the powerclean to a guy from The Art of Manliness blog, it doesn't look that scary at all. (And keep in mind, you're going to start with an empty bar just to ingrain the movement pattern, and then you'll be adding five pounds per lift. So you'll get to do low weight, just practicing the move, before you graduate to a challenging weight.)
One big benefit of Rip's program: he calls for 3 by 5 for most sets instead of 5 by 5. I thought the 5x5 would be better because, you know, it's more, but...
The squats, man.
I'm thinking about going to that 3x5 set up, at least for squats. Doing five sets of five squats, heavy, three times a week (going up by five pounds each time) is daunting and draining, and sometimes I skip lifting a day entirely just because I don't want to do the squats. The other stuff -- fine. But the squats really do suck every drop of cellular energy out of your body.
It's a really good beginner's system, with answers to almost all of the questions a beginner would want answered. I hear good things about Rip's system, too, and of course there are lots of videos of Rip coaching various lifts.
Pinch Faced Puritan and Church Lady Scold Brooke Baldwin Freaks the F Out Because Clay Travis Says He Only Believes in Two Things: The First Amendment, and Boobs
She continues to be #Triggered to the point of incoherence through the interview, and the Social Justice Warrior semi-male she has on for a counterpoint pretends to be equally offended.
By the way: She can't even say the word. Instead of saying the word, when she repeatedly asks him if he really said that.
Then she decides she's just too #Triggered and yanks the mic:
"I'm done, I’m sorry. I’m done," Baldwin said before promptly ending the segment. "This conversation is over, yanking mics, bye."
"Anchors" who are on TV only because they look okay in bikinis and short skirts puddling themselves over hearing language a 6-year-old would find tame is not exactly the #FearlessJournalism I was promised.
Revealed: Men Are Better At Throwing and Aiming -- and Therefore Physics -- Not Because of Biological Evolution of Their Brains to Favor Hunting Skills, But Only Because... They Play Aiming Games While Peeing
—Ace
The "academy" is a joke. They are nothing but political agenda. In this case, to prove that their is no difference -- none! -- between men and women, except for Society.
Theory bends over backwards to find a reason for the gender-gap in physics but doesn't even entertain the possibility of a biological cause pic.twitter.com/n9BSVu6BlS
Anthony Weiner is finally coming clean about his double life as a serial sexter -- admitting that he has had online affairs with 'hundreds of women' since 2009 and knowingly engaged in at least two explicit video chats with an underage girl.
Hundreds? Think of the time factor on that.
Chronic masturbator, this one.
He also says he should avoid jail time because he became a 'national pariah' after the FBI investigation into his sexting prompted the bureau to reopen its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server just days before the presidential election.
Weiner's attorneys filed a lengthy court memo which was made public in full on Thursday documenting their client's years as a self-proclaimed 'sex addict' and asking a judge for leniency when the former congressman is sentenced for sending obscenity to a minor later this month.
In the memo, Weiner says he should be sentenced to probation -- not prison time -- because he has already faced severe 'extrajudicial punishment' and national disgrace after his case damaged Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign last year.
The article suggests that Huma Abedin has known about this problem since 2009, two years before the rest of the world found out, Memorial Day weekend 2011.
The mainstream media failed to see the rise of Donald Trump in 2016. Now it's overlooking another grassroots movement that may soon be of equal significance-- the growing number of liberals "taking the red pill." People of all ages and ethnicities are posting YouTube videos describing "red pill moments"--personal awakenings that have caused them to reject leftist narratives imbibed since childhood from friends, teachers, and the news and entertainment media.
You might say that those who take the red pill have been "triggered." But instead of seeking out "safe spaces," they're doing the opposite, posting monologues throwing off the shackles of political correctness.
Their videos can feature the kind of subversiveness that was once a hallmark of the left''before the movement lost its sense of humor.
Candace Owens, a charismatic young African American, posts commentaries on her YouTube channel whose titles seem expressly designed to make PC heads explode.
A sample: "I Do''t Care About Charlottesville, the KKK, or White Supremacy." The commentary calls out liberal fearmongering over white supremacists. "I mean there are, what, 6,000 Klansmen left in our nation. You want me to actually process that as a legitimate fear every day when I wake up?"
...
A later episode about Black Lives Matter got nearly 700,000 views and had the distinction of being briefly taken down by YouTube. Unapologetic, Owens responded with a follow-up commentary -- "What YouTube and Facebook REALLY Think of Black People."
She declared, "There was only one version of a black person that these platforms are willing to help propel towards fame and notoriety--and that is an angry black victim."
"So DNC hack John Podesta got suckered by an e-mail phishing scam and from that we're supposed to conclude that Donald Trump schemed with Vladimir Putin to rig the election? You'd have to be crazy, and I mean 100% certifiably nuts, to believe that."
47 Ok - instead of those "cute animal or plate of food" stuff how about a mash-up of "Trans-health Manifesto or Uni-bomber Manifesto"
Posted by: Publius Redux at September 14, 2017 11:40 AM (Fb9aZ)
Well, I couldn't find precisely that, but it did remind me of an old classic from the early days of the internet, namely, this quiz where you are given a series of quotes and have to decide whether each one is from Al Gore's book Earth in the Balance or from the Unabomber's Manifesto. It's not easy to tell.
You know how they caught the Unabomber, by the way? After the NY Times published his manifesto, his family contacted the feds and told them "Yeah, that rambling pile of environmentalist gobbledygook sounds just like our nutty brother Ted, and, by the way, here's the location of the remote cabin in Montana where he's been living." And now he's doing life without parole in a federal PMITA prison.
Now that the left is using Harry Potter memes to set their agenda (Trump = Voldemort!), I thought posting this "Hermione Grows Up" SNL parody would be appropriate. It's pretty much a series of boob jokes. Naturally, I laughed like a braying jackass.
Jeremiah Lamenting The Destruction Of Jerusalem
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
The year is 587 BCE, and the Babylonians have just destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple. Judaism commemorates this (and the destruction of the second temple by the Romans in 70 CE) in a holiday called Tisha B'Av.
Good morning kids. First up, above the fold, we have a breaking/developing story in London where an explosion rocked a train in or near the Parsons Green station on the London Underground just a few hours ago during the Friday rush hour. If someone yelled "Shalom, PeeWee!" we'll find out (or not) soon enough. Also, Whoa, Fat! has launched another missile that overflew Japan and went 200 miles further than any previous launch; 2,300 miles. Hank Johnson's Tippy Island is now well within range.
The big story continues to be the fallout over PDT's meeting with Chuck Schemer and Nunzio Palsi, and the alleged "deal" that was struck, or minimally what was or was not discussed vis a vis Amnesty, immigration, the border wall, the Cleveland Indians and the marvel that is Prell shampoo. Yesterday, as you may recall, I leveled criticism at the President, which most of his die-hard supporters took umbrage at. Soon after I had some second thoughts considering the nature of today's media. Rush yesterday explained, and rightly so, that having utterly failed in their attempts to directly destroy Trump, the only way to defeat him is to attempt to separate him from his base. Now this is of course true. And in fact later in the day, whilst on the ground in Florida observing Irma recovery operations, he basically said that what his two dinner guests said was bullshit.
THE PRESIDENT: There was no deal, and they didn't say that. In fact, they just put out a statement. They didn't say that at all.
REPORTER: No release for DACA recipients unless you get the wall? Is that what you're saying?
THE PRESIDENT: The wall.... At some point, they're going to have to.... They cannot obstruct the wall. The wall, to me, is vital. If I don't get the wall, then we will become the obstruction.
REPORTERS: (crosstalk) What has to come first, the wall?
THE PRESIDENT: We have to have an understanding whether it's in the budget or some other vehicle, in a fairly short period of time, the wall will be funded. Otherwise, we're not doing any deal.
Okay, that seemed pretty clear, I guess. BUT, then he had this to say....
We're not looking at citizenship. We're not looking at amnesty. We're looking at allowing people to stay here. We're working with everybody. Republican, we're working with Democrats. I just spoke with Paul Ryan. He's on board. Everybody's on board. They want to do something. We're not talking about amnesty. We're talking about.... Uh, we're talking about taking care of people, people that were brought here-- people that have done a good job and were not brought here of their own volition.
What the hell does that supposed to mean? Not Amnesty, not citizenship but you let people stay? As what, 800,000 essentially stateless persons? Within seconds you are going to have such an outcry from the usual quarters that an entire group of people have been cruelly been made into what is essentially worse than second class citizens and either the hack Judiciary or hack Legislative branch will right this terrible injustice and voila! Millions more Democrat voters.
Look, I'm getting into the weeds here but this entire thing to me is turning into a YUUGE fiasco. I know some will look at this as 11-dimensional chess on PDT's part but frankly I don't see it. He ran on the platform of securing our borders, ending the cultural/societal/economic destruction wrought by 50 years of unchecked third world migration and draining the DC swamp. I realize that he is or purported to be "non-ideological" but he is intelligent; he surely has to see that the things he railed against during the campaign are indeed driven by a mad ideology. To jump into bed with two of its most smarmy figureheads and purveyors is beyond the pale. And I have not forgotten, nor will I ever forget, the bastards in the GOP for aiding and abetting all this and stonewalling the President as well. But as I mentioned the other week in my fantasy address to the nation, the President must declare war on both parties, the Deep State and the media/academia/culture complex on behalf of the people who put him in office. If he is prevented from doing what we want, I can completely understand that so long as he went to the mattresses for us. But this deal making just for the sake of making a deal will be the bitter end, especially on this (the Obamacare non-repeal and tax reform is something else as well). Mr. President, you and we are at a crossroads. You can be the catalyst that begins the road back and go down as a national hero, or squander the last legitimate chance we will ever have to save this nation. Here and now. Choose.
A couple of other items of note: the always great Daniel Greenfield speculates that Susan Rice's unmasked Trump's underlings on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood, Harvard has actually backtracked and rescinded the invitation for the freak traitor Manning, the Russkies and Chi-Coms are propping up regime in Venezuela and Ben Shapiro's engagement at Berkeley went off without too much disruption.
Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.
I hear this is kind of common. Even more common, strangely enough, is so-called "cat burglars" pooping on the floors of homes they've broken into. Why? I have no idea.
Golovkin-Alvarez Fight Ends in Draw "The fight of the decade," to unify the middleweight champion titles, was closely fought -- too closely fought to produce an actual winner
Cincinnati Public Library, 1920s
(click for larger version)
