January 06, 2017

The Morning Report 1/6/17

—J.J. Sefton

Bolshoi.jpg

Good morning, kids. The two main stories we're following are the so-called "Russian Hack" of the US election and the heinous, barbaric Obama-inspired Facebook hate crime. The latter will speak for itself. As to the former, I received an email late yesterday from a regular commenter here, whose identity I will leave anonymous. It too speaks for itself and for me:

I have watched people on this blog chase after Russian boogiemen these past few days with more fervor than a leprechaun after his Lucky Charms. Why are you doing this? Why are you buying this narrative that is being pushed by Democrats? Democrats like Hillary Clinton who's SOP is to lie and blame their failures on others. These are the same Democrats who lied about Benghazi to grieving families and blamed a video. Or how they lied about Hillary's private email server in the bathroom. That nothing but yoga emails were on it when in fact it seemed everyone was hacking it to read classified government documents. So again I have to ask, why should I, or anyone, believe these same Democrats now? They are courting war with a bellicose Russia instead of admitting that all their cheating still did not get Hillary elected.

Have a better one and remain blessed.


Posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:26 AM Comments



Thursday Night Overnight Open Thread (1/5/17)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Thursday night ONT.jpg

Really, it is the Thursday Night Overnight Thread. Thank you for stopping by. Let's get into The ONT.


Quotes of The Day

Quote I

American men don’t hate Lena Dunham for being ugly. American men hate Lena Dunham for being a liar and a feminist (but I repeat myself).

Have you notice that no Canadian men want her in Canada, either? They’ve already got way too many ugly feminist liars in Canada. Robert Stacy McCain


Quote II

"He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes" (Proverbs 13:24)

Thanks Obama administration.

Over the last year, a Seattle school district in the throes of “restorative justice” experienced an alleged gang rape and several student deaths. Criminal charges, including murder, were filed against a group of students not yet out of middle school, reports the Seattle Times. Teachers’ unions in Fresno, Des Moines, New York City, and Indianapolis have all lodged complaints about the anti-discipline philosophy, according to Education Week. The Fresno teachers signed a petition pointing out that students are returned to class after cursing at teachers and physically assaulting them, without suffering any consequences. Fresno’s teachers have been injured trying to stop fights; some are retiring because teaching where severely disruptive students cannot be dislodged has become impossible. In Des Moines, students now hit and scream at each other and their teachers, reports the Des Moines Register.


Quote III

Man...is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill- educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures. Plato


Quote IV

PPS The real choking hazard is the vise-like grip of government. Mark Steyn


Quote V

"Our universities are now the most hostile place in the country to actual thought." - Ace.

Continue reading


Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:04 PM Comments



Glenn Reynolds: Status-Conscious, Achievement-Poor Gentry Liberals Are Frightened By the Diminishment of Their Social Clout that Trump Represents

—Ace

I wrote about this the other day, but I didn't give credit to Glenn Reynolds, who used to write about this an awful lot of after 9/11. (I didn't mean to omit a credit; I had just believed his take for so long I forgot it was his take at all.) He revisits the topic again.

When people feel their place in the world is threatened, they tend to lash out. And after all, the gentry liberals were promised by no less a figure than Clinton Labor secretary and former Harvard professor Robert Reich that the symbolic analysts like them would own the future.

...

And now that Trump has won, people are, in fact, a lot less respectful of the traditional academic and media and political elites. Trump didn't just beat them, after all. He also humiliated them, as they repeatedly assured everyone (and each other) that he had no chance. It's a huge blow to the self-importance of a lot of people. No wonder they’re still lashing out.

Of course, lashing out doesn’t exactly bring people around. A lot of people who cast their votes for Trump reluctantly are likely to conclude that they did the right thing, as Trump's opposition (who during the election cast Trump as the unstable, crazy one) keeps going berserk. In response to the New Yorker cartoon, Sean Davis tweeted: "Do you want more Trump? Because this is how you get more Trump."

It really is.

Reynolds mentions the New Yorker cartoon which smugly asserts that all progressives are "experts" (pilots, in the specifics of the cartoon) and that unwashed, uneducated conservative dolts want to take the controls Because They're Stupid.

An awful lot of the argument here is very personal indeed, because 90% of the idiots asserting they are "experts" who should be obeyed in all things have absolutely nothing to their credit which would remotely justify any claim of status as "experts" in any recognizable field at all.

I have paid experts to do various things for me. Note that in the typical situation, a principal -- the client, the buyer of expertise -- decides he wants to achieve something, looks for expert help, investigates who a good expert would be, and then pays that expert for his services.

By the way, if I find out the expert I hired doesn't know his stuff or is an idiot, I fire that expert, as is my right.

It's a voluntary association -- and an association based on the exchange of money for services.

This is not the case with America's current lunatic asylum of self-professed experts who tell you they'll be Your Personal All-Purpose Expert for free, but with a catch: You must obey them and may not ever terminate their employment.

Oh, and also, they're also telling you they won't be your expert. They intend to be your boss.

An expert usually tells you how to best execute a course of action you've already chosen. Yes, he can also advise you on which path you should choose, but even in that case, the expert is not The Decider of what path you must choose. He's supposed to give you the pros and cons of various approaches, then he's supposed to leave the decision to you. You know, the boss, the client, the actual principle.

But these free-range, self-proclaimed "experts" who strangely aren't charging for their expert services (though they'll tell you just how precious and valuable this freely-given service is) do not act like experts. They act like principals.

Suppose you want an architect to draw up plans for a house. You want a dining room because you never had one as a kid, and always associated it -- from old magazine pictures, from old movies, whatever -- with a stable and happy home.

Suppose your architect comes back with no dining room -- just one big great room combining living room, kitchen, and dining area.

"Where's the dining room I asked for?" you want to know.

"No one has dining rooms any more," the expert tells you. "It's all Open Concept now, one room sweeping into the other, bringing together the family in one big room at all times."

"That may well be, but I want a dining room."

"Walls are passe," the experts smugly tells you. "They interrupt the sight-lines."

"I don't care about sight-lines. And honestly, I love my kids, but I'm not so crazy about them so much I want to be locked in a giant room with them 24/7. I want walls and I want a dining room," you say again.

"No one eats in a dining room and anyway dining rooms are too formal."

"I'd like to be formal on occasion."

"Well," the architect tells you, "I've decided that dining rooms are in bad taste and I'm the expert and you can't have one. You're getting Open Concept whether you like it or not, Trump Voter."

At this point, you begin beating the architect about the face and neck and eject him forceably from your home.

As I said, an expert exists to advise you options that you can choose from, and advises you on how best to execute the choice that you have made.

They do not typically arrogate themselves into the position of instructing you what your choice must be.

But that's because they're actual experts, actually sought out and paid by clients to do things.

They would know this if they ever had actually been hired as an expert.

Of course, they haven't.

The crop of very, very stupid and untalented progressives (and, honestly, the Establishment Conservative Church of Online Political Pontificating) are not sought by anyone, not hired by anyone.

They offer their "expertise" at exactly the price it is worth -- zero point zero dollars -- which should tip you (and they themselves) off right away that they're not actually experts.

Real experts get paid, Jack.

Then they further demonstrate that they have no idea of what the principal-agent relationship works like by insisting that they are now the Principal and they're in charge and you're to just sit back and nod appreciatively as they spend your money for purposes you don't support and in fact have explicitly objected to.

And then when you say, "Fuck these inexpert 'experts' and all their free 'helpful advice,'" they whine and cry and squeal that you're the ignorant one for not understanding that the old rule that the expert provides advice and the principal makes decisions is as old-fashioned as a dining room.

War is too important to be left to the generals, they sometimes say. Our inbred, weak-chinned social caste of self-appointed Experts -- the self-imagined expertocracy -- has decided that political choices are too important to be left to the actual polity.

The act of saying "Fuck you" to any mortal man who would claim dominion and authority over you is the first act of a free man. Not a free man on paper, but a free man in fact.

Posted by Ace at 06:50 PM Comments

Source: Hillary Clinton Is Thinking About Running for Mayor of NYC

—Ace

She'll get schlonged, I think.

PS, sorry for the crap blogging. I'm not exactly sick but my brain seems to be laid up in bed.

And now in Instapundit's update -- unhinged leftist hack Matthew Dowd, neutral and objective chief political analyst of ABCNews -- is now considering running against Ted Cruz for Senator in Texas.

I've recently written of the stellar work Matthew J. Dowd does -- like his endless screaming that Trump voters won't LISTEN TO US.

I think he'll do gangbusters business in Texas, a state which is proud to call itself The State of Believing What Our Betters Tell Us, the state of the Compliant Cowboys.

By the way, Dowd was a longtime Democratic operative who defected to the Bush team when Bush was governor. Courtiers always keep a weather eye for changes in the political weather. By 2007, he was publicly criticizing Bush for the Iraq War.


Posted by Ace at 05:56 PM Comments

Tucker Carlson To Take Over at 9PM on Fox

—Ace

Turns out he was better at Megyn Moments than Megyn.

Martha McCallum will take over Tucker Carlson's current slot at 7pm, in a show called "The First 100 Days," about, well, the first 100 days of Trump's administration. Not sure what happens after day 100.

Posted by Ace at 04:36 PM Comments

Obama's Failed Novelist and "Echo Chamber" Orchestra-Leader Was Only One of 187 Obama Advisers Denied for Interim Security Clearance by the FBI

—Ace

Republicans are asking: "Why?"

Importantly, the Obama Administration were wary about fighting over the decision:

"We agree that it would not be worth pushing for Benjamin Rhodes to receive interim status," Obama transition team members wrote to Podesta in October 2008.

The FBI eventually concluded a full security review and granted Rhodes all the security clearances sought.

But what troubled the FBI about granting him preliminary security access in this one case?

Posted by Ace at 03:31 PM Comments

Hate Charges Filed Against FaceBook Racist Torturers

—Ace

White Lives Matter too?

Posted by Ace at 02:38 PM Comments

Climate Scientist Announces She's a Skeptic, That She's Had It With the "CRAZINESS" of Politicized Science, and Resigns Her Tenured Job at Georgia Tech

—Ace

The science is unsettling.

Here's Judith Curry's full statement:

Apart from my own personal career trajectory and the ‘shocks’ that started in 2005 with our hurricanes and global warming paper, and the massive spike in 2009/2010 from Climategate, I’ve found that universities have changed substantially over the past 5-10 years.

At first, I thought the changes I saw at Georgia Tech were due to a change in the higher administration (President, Provost, etc). The academic nirvana under the prior Georgia Tech administration of Wayne Clough, Jean-Lou Chameau and Gary Schuster was a hard act to follow. But then I started to realize that academia and universities nationwide were undergoing substantial changes. I came across a recent article that expresses part of what is wrong: Universities are becoming like mechanical nightingales.

That link goes to a Chinese parable about a mechanical nightingale that the courtiers grow so enamored with they completely forget about the real nightingale that inspired the ersatz one. It's a parable for universities becoming so enamored with models and abstractions they lose sight of the actual physical and social reality they're allegedly scholars of.

The reward system that is in place for university faculty members is becoming increasingly counterproductive to actually educating students to be able to think and cope in the real world, and in expanding the frontiers of knowledge in a meaningful way (at least in certain fields that are publicly relevant such as climate change). I've written on these topics before, I won't belabor this here.

So why not try to change the system from the inside? Well, this is not the battle I want to fight, apart from any realistic assessment of being able to shift the ponderous beast from within.

Or maybe it’s just a case of 'wrong trousers' as far as I'm concerned. Simply, universities no longer feel like the 'real deal' to me (note: this criticism is not targeted at Georgia Tech, which is better than most). It's time for me to leave the ivory tower.

A deciding factor was that I no longer know what to say to students and postdocs regarding how to navigate the CRAZINESS in the field of climate science. Research and other professional activities are professionally rewarded only if they are channeled in certain directions approved by a politicized academic establishment — funding, ease of getting your papers published, getting hired in prestigious positions, appointments to prestigious committees and boards, professional recognition, etc.

How young scientists are to navigate all this is beyond me, and it often becomes a battle of scientific integrity versus career suicide (I have worked through these issues with a number of skeptical young scientists).

She'll be burned in effigy as a heretic within a week and a day.


PS: I'm working on a post about the left's Narrative Building on the horrific hate crime we saw on FaceBook yesterday. Just want to get it right. Plus, every three minutes a new outrageous attempt at giving their fellow progs something to say in FaceBook Arguments comes up.

Posted by Ace at 01:35 PM Comments

The FBI Never Examined the DNC's Hacked Computers; The Diagnosis of "Hacked by Russia" Was Made By a Private Firm the DNC Hired

—Ace

Anyone see a problem here?

First, if you really cared about Russian hacking like you claim to do, you'd give the computers to the FBI so that they -- the actual counter-intelligence law enforcement agency of the US -- can hunt the bad guys down.

Second, although some DNC jackass says this private firm Crowdstrike is "pretty good," I'll tell you what they also are -- they are paid by the DNC. When your employer lets you know he strongly would like you to consider a conclusion he favors, well, someone getting paid and looking to get paid in the future might just find himself seeing Reds Under His Beds that aren't necessarily there.

The DNC isn't acting like it thinks it was hacked by Russians. It's acting only as if it's in its political interest to claim it was hacked by Russians.

Posted by Ace at 11:55 AM Comments

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

bierstadt buffalo.JPG

The Last of The Buffalo
Albert Bierstadt

This is a big painting, almost 10'x6', and it certainly doesn't lend itself to computer screens or tablets or phones, so get your lazy asses over to the Corcoran Gallery of Art ???? *and see the original.

*Bluebell has pointed out that the Corcoran has closed. It looks like the collection has been transferred to the National Gallery of Art.

I was going to use Norman Rockwell's New Kids in The Neighborhood and express the hope that we could return to that tone, but after seeing what happened in Chicago, I was too disheartened. I think Rockwell's expression of hope and optimism has been thoroughly destroyed by the most divisive president in our history. If an honest history is ever written about him, it will describe the comprehensive destruction of racial harmony in America.

PS. LauraW is back on Twitter.... @MissLumps

Posted by CBD at 09:30 AM Comments

The Morning Report 1/5/17

—J.J. Sefton

faint.jpg

Good morning, kids. Top story is the Chicago cops have arrested four "youths" for abducting and torturing a man with special needs and then posting their actions on Facebook. But the police are hesitant to call this a hate crime. I mean just because the victim was white, the perps were black and were heard shouting racist obscenities at him that doesn't mean anything. And in the end, society is really at fault here. Well, "The Great Society" anyway. Disgusted and angered beyond belief with this. On other fronts, the defunding Obamacare battle moves into a new phase but we'll see where this all goes. Forget Manchin, McConnell and all the others; as has always been the case since July 2015, the "X" factor is Trump. Anyway, have a better one and remain blessed.

UPDATE: Links fixed!

Posted by J.J. Sefton at 06:50 AM Comments

Wednesday Night ONT: Up All Night Edition

—WeirdDave

Good evening, and welcome to tonight's ONT. How goes things with all of the fine 'Ettes and 'Rons of the horde (for the Horde!)? How shall we start? I know, how about a dose of Florida Man?

Florida.jpg

Look around you. See those Morons who are nodding sagely? Stay away from those people at parties.

Continue reading


Posted by WeirdDave at 10:00 PM Comments

Report: Fox Offered Megyn Kelly $100 Million for Just Four Years, But She Was So Unhappy at the Network She Left Anyway

—Ace

Drama, drama, drama.

Sources close to Kelly told me today that her departure is an indication of just how unhappy she had become at Fox in the wake of her high-profile feud with Donald Trump and revelations she had accused Ailes of sexual harassment. Her relationships with Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity in particular had completely broken down, one Fox host told me. "Bill hated her," the host said. As Kelly's contract negotiations dragged on during her much-publicized book tour, things also grew strained with Rupert Murdoch, two sources said. One Fox insider told me Murdoch balked when Kelly asked for $25 million late in the talks. (A person close to Kelly disputed this, saying that said Kelly never asked for a specific dollar amount but that Fox had offered $25 million.)

The article mentions that Kelly is taking a big risk -- other Big Names in News-Reading have attempted mid-day talk/news shows, and have failed.

If this is on NBC -- a terrestrial network -- they're going to expect higher ratings than what would be considered a big hit on cable.

If it's on MSNBC... well, that would just be perfect.

Posted by Ace at 08:29 PM Comments

The National Laughingstock Doubled Down on Deception In Making False Statements to the Public In Defense of Its Indefensible "Russia Hacked Vermont's Electric Grid" #FakeNews

—Ace

The Washington Post is The National Laughinstock and I'll call it that from now on.

They didn't just peddle more #FakeNews from their limitless stock of the stuff-- they then offered false statements to explain why their #FakeNews was so abysmally fake.

Via Jazz Shaw,this Forbes demolition derby is worth reading in full. I can't except enough of it to make it make sense without "excerpting" it all, so you'll have to just bite the bullet and read the article.

But the gist of it is this: The National Laughingstock, attempting to explain its latest #FakeNews fiasco, claimed falsely that they had in fact contacted the relevant power companies to see if the story was even remotely true.

But it turns out they didn't -- not until after the story had been published.

They didn't even do that tiny amount of fact checking until after they'd injected this viral #FakeNews into the national bloodstream.

It turns out that the reason that Burlington Electric did not response to the Post's prepublication request for comment is that the Post actually did not reach out for comment until after it had already run its story. The Post's article went live on its website at 7:55PM EST, but according to Mr. Kanarick, the first contact from the Post was a phone call from reporter Adam Entous at 8:05PM, 10 minutes after the Post's story had been published.

It is simply astounding that any newspaper, let alone one of the Post's reputation and stature, would run a story and then ten minutes after publication, turn around and finally ask the central focus of the article for comment. Not only does this violate every professional norm and standard of journalistic practice, but it feeds directly into the public's growing distrust of media. In the era of "fake news" hysteria where publications like the Washington Post tout their extensive fact checking and vetting workflows as reasons that the public should trust their reporting over anyone else, it is surprising to see just how chaotic or non-existent that fact checking really is.

What exactly is "fact checking" when a newspaper runs a story and only calls the party involved after publication for comment on the published and live story that is already circulating widely? That suggests that the Post's idea of fact checking is to publish first and then correct the story by rewriting it bit by bit in the hours following publication, rather than collecting all facts and developing a definitive hard story before ever allowing it to be published. While both models might be called "fact checking," the latter is what leads to false and misleading news circulating, especially as other news outlets picked up on the Post's story and ran it assuming that the Post had conducted all of the necessary fact checking.

Do read the whole thing. It's infuriating these #FakeNews peddlers continue lecturing about fake news.

And on that, remember it was the National Laughingstock that reported on a "study" conducted by anonymous people with no demonstrable expertise which purported to list websites which were state-sponsored Russian propaganda (or, as a walk-back would have it, sometimes published stories congruent with state-sponsored Russian propaganda). Glenn Greenwald -- yeah yeah, I know -- ripped National Laughingstock for that particularly filthy bit of #FakeNews.

In his article, the Post’s Timberg did not include a link to PropOrNot's website. If readers had the opportunity to visit the site, it would have become instantly apparent that this group of ostensible experts far more resembles amateur peddlers of primitive, shallow propagandistic cliches than serious, substantive analysis and expertise; that it has a blatant, demonstrable bias in promoting NATO's narrative about the world; and that it is engaging in extremely dubious McCarthyite tactics about a wide range of critics and dissenters.

To see how frivolous and even childish this group of anonymous cowards is -- which the Post venerated into serious experts in order to peddle their story-- just sample a couple of the recent tweets from this group:

Awww, wook at all the angwy Putinists, trying to change the subject -- they're so vewwy angwy!! It's cute ???? We don't censor; just highlight.

— PropOrNot ID Service (@propornot) November 26, 2016

Fascists. Straight up muthafuckin' fascists. That's what we're up against. Unwittingly or not, they work for Russia. https://t.co/LBp2y19PTv

— PropOrNot ID Service (@propornot) November 22, 2016

Glenn Greenwald has been widely cited by many top-tier magazines and his blog posts have been read on the Senate floor.

-- Rich Ellers (@glenngreenwald) November 22, 2016

Okay, I made that last one up. It's a classic for a reason, though.

But anyway:

As for their refusal to identify themselves even as they smear hundreds of American journalists as loyal to the Kremlin or "useful idiots" for it, this is their mature response:
We'll consider revealing our names when Russia reveals the names of those running its propaganda operations in the West ????

— PropOrNot ID Service (@propornot) November 25, 2016

The Washington Post should be very proud: It staked a major part of its news story on the unverified, untestable assertions of this laughable organization.

The National Laughingstock is just Slate with coverage of the local sports teams now.

I'm not even sure it rises to the level of Slate.

Posted by Ace at 06:46 PM Comments

Representative Richard Hudson Introduces National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Bill to Congress

—Ace

You can't have GAINZZZ without GUNZZZ.

On January 3--the first day of the 115th Congress---Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC-8) introduced national concealed carry reciprocity legislation.

...

Hudson's legislation not only establishes national reciprocity for concealed permit holders but also national reciprocity for residents who live in states that require no permit for concealed carry. In the former situation the concealed carry permit of any state would be valid in every state and the "identification document" in possession of a resident of a constitutional carry state would serve as a permit to carry without a license in other states.

Good? I don't know.

This bothers me on federalism grounds. States do in fact make compacts permitting just this sort of reciprocity -- I don't know why we need a federal law to do it.

And the bill seems to offer up a thin reed indeed as a justification for federal jurisdiction -- the bill makes any gun shipped or sold in federal commerce legal to carry via these reciprocity rules.

That part rankles me -- this very dubious theory that federal jurisdiction obtains in any case where any good or service has been sold across state lines, or anyone has even thought about crossing state lines, is plainly an unconstitutional end-around the states' power to make their own laws.

I support the idea behind this, but I don't know about the method. I do know that states have compacts for reciprocity. It seems to me that a better method would be encouraging more of that, or streamlining the out-of-state licensing process, or the like.

For example: if a state has a law that you need to attend courses to get your concealed license, and that course must be administered in-state, I could see Congress saying that that last requirement runs afoul of the Commerce Clause, and that, for example, Utah must permit Utah-certified instructors to give gun safety courses in Georgia, so that Georgians can more easily get their Utah permit.

That seems to me something more in spirit of the real Commerce Clause -- breaking down states' attempts to create barriers to trade and one-state monopolies.

With that kind of rule, a Georgia resident who wants to concealed-carry in every state that permits it could get licensed in many states by going to nearby instructors.

But I don't know about bigfooting states' rights to determine that a concealed carry permit should only be held by someone who takes a couple of days of classes and say that they must permit anyone from a state without such a requirement to conceal-carry in that state.

Posted by Ace at 05:44 PM Comments

John Ekdahl Asks Liberal Journalists a Question and They All Light Their Hair on Fire in Response

—Ace

I'm genuinely jealous -- I ask liberal reporters a lot of questions on Twitter, and they just completely ignore me. What it was about this question that made it catnip for commies, I don't know. But I'm going to study the boy's technique.


Sean Davis rounds up the hysterical overreactions by people in the media -- and liberals who apparently consider themselves to be reporters by proxy (I guess on the theory that anyone on Twitter is a "reporter") -- and it's a sumptuous feast of stupid.

There were basically three types of hysterical response to a simple question about truck owners: 1) shut up, 2) you're stupid and/or sexist and/or racist, and 3) whatever, liar, trucks aren't popular (far and away my favorite delusional response to a simple question from a group of people who want you to believe they're extremely concerned about "fake news"). It turns out that people who are paid large sums of money to opine on what Americans outside the Acela province think get very upset if you demonstrate that they don't actually know any of the people about whom they pretend to be experts.

Flabby flack Frank Luntz in particular really wanted to do a deep dive on the numbers before conceding that these trucks were in fact the best-selling models of light vehicles in America, questioning whether the trucks sold well to individual customers, or were just bought en masse for construction fleets:



I don't understand his resistance to accepting a well-evidenced claim as true, especially given that his petty cavil, even if true, would not alter John's point that a great many Americans own pickups, and it would say something about the insularity of the political and media classes (but I repeat myself) if they could not even think of a distant relative who owned a pickup.

As to progs' hysterical overreactions, I can only make a simple, obvious observation.

It's about ego.

There is this weird insistence progs and journalists (but I repeat myself) in particular have -- but everyone has this egotistical kick to some degree -- that all of human experience resides somewhere within them.

A guy who's never been poor in his life will begin kinda making up bullshit about having to scrap by in college to prove he's seen that side of life, for example.

There's just this weird, egotistical unwillingness to confess that one is a human being -- and not God, who is posited to understand everything. People have this weird blasphemous tic about insisting that they are the Alpha and Omega of human experience, that all human lives are lived somewhere in their soul, and that they represent the summa of the human condition.

Progs are especially insistent on this, because they claim to have greater Empathy and Cosmopolitaness than anyone else. (Despite the fact that they're nasty buggers who have lived all their life in a six by six block range in Brooklyn, except for that one semester abroad in Barcelona that they never shut the fuck up about.)

Journalists are also very insistent on this, as the pretensions of their hack jobs require them to pretend at knowledge they simply do not have and have no interest in having ("Who cares about trucks?!!?"), but are required to bluff and bullshit about on a daily basis.

Put the two into the same body and you have a maelstrom of credential-grabbing, resume-forging egostorm bullshit.

I don't know why people have such trouble with the three words that are the beginning of all wisdom:

I.

Don't.

Know.

Not "I don't care" or "Why is that even important?!," which are the college models of the proudly ignorant.

But a simple confession of not knowing.

Including its variants, such as, "That's outside my range of knowledge" and "I really don't know anything about that."

Personally, I have never owned a truck and I'm not sure I know anyone who owns one. (I know people who definitely did own trucks when I knew them, but some I haven't seen in a while so I don't know if they still have them or have gotten an SUV or something.)

So the truck experience is outside my experience.

I don't know why that's so hard to admit. I guess it's hard to admit for the extremely narcissistic and egotistical, who feel they have to pretend they know everything about everything, that they are large and contain multitudes, and that God has prepared a mansion for all of the Saved to live in, and it's called Their Super-Good Brain.

But I don't pretend that, so it's really not a big deal to me.

Genteel Ignorance: I've noted before that it was (is) a pretension of aristocracy to take pride in not knowing things about manual labor and ordinary lives. Someone who wishes to signal he's an aristocrat will make sure he knows all about fashion, but will also never actually stitch his togs, and will proudly announce that he can't stitch them.

It's an assertion of the division of labors between the Thinking Classes (guffaw) and the Working Classes.

This truck episode seems to be similar to that.

Posted by Ace at 03:50 PM Comments

Of Course: Hot New Trend is Offering No-Boys-Allowed "Co-Working Spaces" for Women

—Ace

Sexual segregation is cool, so long as the right sex is being excluded.

Before we get into this, I guess people need to know what a "co-working space" is, which I personally don't. It seems to be some kind of social club you pay a yearly fee to belong to, which is... I don't know. I don't know how "working" figures in here. I guess it's like Starbucks -- it's a place to hang out with your laptop open so you can pretend you're "working on your screenplay and/or novel" as you gab and gossip.

No Boys Allowed: The New Rule of Co-Working Spaces

"Women are craving community, connection, and confidence, and that's what we're going to give them."

by Ariana Igneri
January 4, 2017, 7:30 AM EST

I want everyone to get ready for a sentence that will surprise you, but will, in immediate hindsight, seem completely inevitable.

It's 11 a.m. on a recent Friday, and 29-year-old Audrey Gelman--public-relations powerhouse, former Hillary Clinton press aide, longtime friend of Lena Dunham's -- is sitting on a pink couch at the Wing, the co-working space and social club she co-founded this October in New York. A man walks through the elevator doors, and Gelman throws him a friendly wave. "That's our AV guy," she says. "He's basically the only man that comes through here."

Ah-ha. Seems you need a Man to do anything technical.

Now do some whining about women not getting enough STEM degrees.

That's because the Wing--so-named because, like the wing of a house, it's a separate space--is just for women. Co-working is hardly new; industry trade magazine Deskmag estimated there would be 10,000 co-working spots worldwide by the end of 2016. But female-focused spaces have become a niche in the industry as a response to contemporary feminism and a reaction against fratty venues that advertise kegs and pingpong....


In addition to a pastel-and-gold-tinted communal workspace and a library with books (yes, there’s a copy of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own) arranged by color, the Wing provides its 400 members with on-demand blowouts, a lactation room, and vanities stocked with trendy beauty products from partners including Glossier, Diptyque, and Ouai Haircare. Membership is $1,950 a year or $185 a month, plus a one-time registration fee of $100--and whatever extra you spend on hair and makeup services or soba noodles and lattes. Subscriptions have doubled since the club opened, Gelman says, and the Wing's Instagram account has more than 45,000 followers. "Part of that is having a personality and a distinct point of view," she says, "which means not being everything to everyone."

As Drew pointed out on Twitter, men used to have private spaces and clubs they could belong to, which had "personality" and a "distinct point of view," such as leather-padded doors and walls with a lot of antlers on them and no lactation rooms whatsoever. These clubs were also "not being everything to everyone," but they were shuttered or forced to include women for being discriminatory.

But in our Princess Gets Whatever She Wants age of feminism, such obvious points are officially Thoughtcrimes.

Posted by Ace at 01:59 PM Comments

Morning Consult/Politico Poll: In a Hypothetical Two-Way Matchup, Trump Would Defeat Obama by One Point, 46-45

—Ace

That's gotta sting the Narcissistic One's ego, huh?

Of course it also adds to Trump's, which I think is dangerously yuge itself.

Posted by Ace at 12:53 PM Comments

I'm Dying.

—LauraW.

So yesterday Ace posted a sidebar item on these 'shreds' youtubes, where some brilliant damn idiots made wonderful improvements to old recordings.

The Hall & Oates one on the sidebar is like a gateway drug. From there I found more.

I'm really dying. This might be all for the ol' hunchback. It was nice knowing me.

Continue reading


Posted by LauraW. at 12:03 PM Comments

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The Letter Coriot.jpg

The Letter
Camille Corot

This piece was donated to the metropolitan Museum of Art by a famous American art-collecting family; the Havemeyers. The family owned a large property near where I grew up, and we used to go there to observe the stars and chat about eschatology and the failure of post-modernist literature. And drink beer.

Posted by CBD at 09:45 AM Comments

The Morning Report 1/4/17

—J.J. Sefton

Cops.jpg

Good morning, kids. We start the day with a trio of Obamacare items. The first and third are quite good, and Steve King is a real mensch. There are also reports that the wheels are in motion for an Obamacare repeal via budget reconciliation. And then, on the opposite end of the spectrum to King, there's this fvcking momzer Kevin McCarthy. He has the intellectual agility of a mongoloid sea slug but is as corrupt as they come. And this prick represents what Trump is going to be up against. Also of note, Andrew Cuomo has pardoned one of the terrorists convicted of the deadly 1981 Brinks Heist where two cops and Brinks guard were gunned down in cold blood. But one of the participants, Kathy Boudin, is now a professor at Columbia University, so it's all good. I wouldn't be surprised if SCOAMF pardons Joanne Chesimard/Assata Shakur on his way out the door. Anyway, have a better one and remain blessed.

Posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:00 AM Comments

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread (1/3/17)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Quotes of The Day

Quote I

Our government needs to adopt a pro-market agenda that doesn't pick winners and losers, but it invites competition and it levels the playing field for everyone. Sarah Palin


Quote II

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. H. L. Mencken

A moron over the last 8 years would have been preferable to the narcissistic jackass that has occupied the White House.


Quote III

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
― Gerald R. Ford


Quote IV

“If the national GOP is a vehicle for ensuring that John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan have a car and driver and a Gulf emir-sized retinue, then it’s very effective. If it’s a vehicle for advancing conservative principles, then it’s a rusted-up lemon on cinder blocks.” — Mark Steyn


Quote V

2 Thessalonians 3:10 New International Version
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat."


Anything worth having is worth working for. Except Finland.

Finland’s center-right government hopes the experiment will curb unemployment in the country, which currently stand at around 8.1 percent, or 213,000 out of a nation of 5.5 million. Olli Kangas, of Finnish benefits agency KELA, told the AP that the scheme is intended to counter the “disincentive problem” among the unemployed. Citizens without a job in Finland can refuse new work if it is short-term or low-paid, so it’s thought that giving these individuals benefits even after they’ve got a job will dispel the fear “of losing out.”

“WILL THIS LEAD THEM TO BOLDLY EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT KINDS OF JOBS?”
“It’s highly interesting to see how it makes people behave,” said Kangas. “Or, as some critics claim, make them lazier with the knowledge of getting a basic income without doing anything?” The income will certainly not match that of Finland’s employed citizens, who earn roughly €3,500 per month in the private sector.


The civilized countries of our world have gotten fat and lazy and too full of themselves.


Continue reading


Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:00 PM Comments

MeAgain Kelly's Last Ride

—Ace

Well, not her last ride -- her last show will be Friday.

But I'm sure Cable's Queen of Drama will review some of her dramatic career for us. She might even have a series of Male Defenders on to explain how right she is about everything.

Posted by Ace at 08:54 PM Comments

This Is How the Media Dies: Not With a Bang But a Whine

—Ace

Some really good pieces today. I suggest you read the whole thing for each, but here's just a little to get you going.

Mollie Hemingway appeared on Howard Kurtz yesterday to say bad things about the media, and the video's worth watching.

But her article about it is better and more detailed. She offers advice to media liberals about how to not be such unhinged ninnies about Trump. Here's a bit:

It’s been nearly two months since Donald Trump won the 2016 election for president of the United States but somehow that’s not been enough time for the reality to sink in for many political liberals. Yes, presidential elections have been emotional for some time. I can vouch for how sad if not depressed many conservatives were when Mitt Romney lost his bid to unseat President Obama in 2012. If you didn't already know that, it's probably just because you don’t know many conservatives. The media never for a moment considered how heartbreaking that loss was for many Americans worried about the direction of the country.

Because humans don't really care how non-humans feel.

But as the media overwhelmingly tend to the political left and chose not obscure their bias so much this round, we've been given daily examples of the difficulty folks on that side of the political divide are having with the reality of Donald Trump. The crying, the protests, the riots, the subway art installations, the artist boycotts, the recount efforts, the organized and funded push to have the Electoral College do... something, the media-fed conspiracy theories about Russian vote hacking. Pundits on TV shake their head at everything Trump says and does, and journalists on Twitter react like rabid Pavlovian dogs to every utterance the president-elect makes.


Folks on the Right, regardless of how they feel about Trump, have been enjoying this meltdown. It's funny! The hubris leading up the election only makes it more so! The more kindhearted keep encouraging the rest of us not to take so much delight in the tremendous difficulty the Left is having. And we all keep wondering just how long the Left is going to have this break with reality, this refusal to come to terms with life as it is....


4) Don't Follow the Media's or Social Media's Lead

It should go without saying that the media had the wrong idea about the 2016 race from top to bottom. They were focused on personality at the expense of policy. They took a man well known for his sexual impropriety and tried to make his sexual impropriety the major story of the race. They avoided truly discussing his foreign policy, immigration, and economic policy. They pretended that Hillary Clinton was a far better and stronger candidate than she was. They protected her in ways that blew up in their face (e.g. by claiming, prior to her collapse on 9/11, that discussion of her health was a conspiracy theory).

Social media was just as bad. To give an example from the Right, nearly everyone on Twitter believed strongly that Trump's primary opponents should renounce him and pledge not to support him if he won the nomination. Among Republicans off social media, there was almost no support for such an approach. Typical Republicans wanted the candidates to support whoever got the nomination.

There's always a disconnect between a navel-gazing media establishment based in New York City and Washington DC and the rest of the country, but it's gotten far worse in the last year. Disregard the false narratives being pushed by many in the media and get out and talk to a Trump-supporting neighbor. You'll learn far more. And you'll feel a lot better when you realize they’re not the monster they’ve been portrayed as.

Yup. And I've gotta say, 2016 was an eye-opener for me, when I learned how truly dogmatic, cultish, sheep-like, and heretic-hunting the online right was.

I can't say I'll ever be part of the movement again, not really, not after seeing what it was really all about.

Michael Walsh just spits molten nails at the media, and it's glorious.

Riffing off Ross Douthat's infamous tweet of Sept. 2015 -- "The entire commentariat is going to feel a little silly when Marco Rubio wins every Republican primary" -- writer Zach Schonfeld notes:
At best, it's just a dopey prediction -- we've all made some of those. At worst, it's an enduring avatar of the cartoonish arrogance and mass-scale humiliation that overtook the pundit class in 2016. It's a microcosm of the biggest media trend of the year: total humiliation.

It was not just Douthat. For lots of high-profile media personalities, from Nate Silver to Nick Denton, 2016 dealt an enormous reckoning....


It was the year we realized that a lot of Very Important People who get paid a lot of money to know about U.S. politics have little more insight to dispense than the cab drivers they quote in their columns... For Trump fans, it is thrillingly apt that the candidate whose rise to power blindsided the media is the same candidate who staked his entire campaign on bald contempt for journalists. Trump’s bone-deep loathing of the “dishonest media” might be his only coherent ideology.

Well, as they say: it's a start...

He then talks about all the job-losses in the media sector.

This is what happens when reporters become blind partisans, and when their grasp of larger cultural issues is subsumed by the horse race. And yet, despite their horrendous failure -- why, indeed, should anyone even believe them again when they tout a sure thing like Hillary Clinton? -- you can bet that, four years from now, they'll happily do it all over again.

Those who survive, that is.

If you didn't know -- I didn't -- today James Taranto wrote his very last Best of the Web column. Sad! He's being promoted to op-ed page editor, but his gain is our loss.

For his last column, he really brings the stuff.

If you've ever wondered why the media seems to be taking this so damn personally, well, it's because it is very personal indeed. Sure, they're upset that Hillary lost-- but that's only part of it.

The bigger part is that they lost something personally -- prestige.

It was a lot like after 9/11 when reporters were butthurt that soldiers and cops and firefighters and EMTs were treated as the real heroes, rather than, as everyone of good sense and taste prefers, reporters being treated as the real heroes.

They felt meh about the felling of the Towers. What really burned their asses was the diminishment of their position in the pecking order.

And so too now after Trump:

[New York Times media beat reporter Jim] Rutenberg's list of mainstream-media missteps is serviceable as an answer to the question of how journalists blew it, but he doesn't even attempt to grapple with the question of why. Partisan and ideological bias is part of the answer, but it isn’t sufficient. After all, no one is more biased than 99th-percentile Michael Moore [who predicted Trump's victory -- ace]. Nor is it very interesting. To those of us who are aware of media bias, it is so familiar that we find the subject almost as tiresome as do those who are suffused with, and therefore oblivious to, it.

It seems to us that partisan and ideological bias is a symptom of a deeper disorder that afflicts journalism (among other institutions). Without meaning to, Rutenburg points toward a diagnosis. Here is how he describes his year in retrospect:

Starting a weekly column about the nexus between media, technology, culture and politics in the middle of the 2016 presidential campaign was like parachuting into a hail of machine-gun crossfire.

Dense smoke was everywhere as the candidates and their supporters unloaded on one another and, frequently, the news media, which more than occasionally was drawn into the fighting.

The territory that was at stake was the realm of the true, and how all sides would define it in the hyperpartisan debate to come under a new president.


Fact check: "The realm of the true" is not a real place. It is even more notional than "the Clinton Archipelago" [i.e, the Clinton Bubble -- ace], though it does occur to us to wonder if the two places are coterminous in Rutenberg's mind.

OK, that was facetious. We respect Rutenberg enough to take him seriously and not literally; and obviously "the realm of the true" is a metaphor. But a metaphor for what?

As it happens, we answered that question in a 2013 column:

...

Territorial animals fiercely defend their turf: "When a territory holder is challenged by a rival, the owner almost always wins the contest--usually within a matter of seconds," observes biologist John Alcock in "Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach." We'd say the same instinct is at work when the great apes who call themselves Homo sapiens defend their authority. When it is challenged, they can become vicious, prone to risky and unscrupulous behavior.

That, it seems to us, is the central story of our time. The left-liberal elite that attained cultural dominance between the 1960s and the 1980s--and that since 2008 has seen itself as being on the cusp of political dominance as well--is undergoing a crisis of authority, and its defenses are increasingly ferocious and unprincipled.

Journalists lie or ignore important but politically uncongenial stories. Scientists suppress alternative hypotheses. Political organizations bully apolitical charities. The Internal Revenue Service persecutes dissenters. And campus censorship goes on still.

By "the realm of the true," Rutenberg means the authority to issue pronouncements about what is true -- an authority, he seems to believe, that rightly belongs to journalists and the sources they deem trustworthy. Elsewhere in the Dec. 26 column he describes the news media's role as "to do its part in maintaining a fact-based national debate." And this supposed authority extends beyond matters of fact to judgments of morality and taste...

Read the whole thing -- like I said, he jammed an awful lot into his goodbye column.

And he's of course definitely right. The media are acting viciously and defensively precisely because they are defending the territory they've claimed for themselves by pissing all over the outskirts of it. They will not abide a challenge nor a chastening; they intend to "win" the argument they've been having for 40 years with 300 million Americans.

They won't, but no one accepts a downward change in status gracefully and without embarrassing spectacle.

Posted by Ace at 06:48 PM Comments

Josh Earnest: Why Didn't We Punish China for the Millions of Sensitive Personal Disclosures Stolen in the OPM Hack? Because F*** You, That's Why

—Ace

Here's the real reason:

It's because the OPM hack chiefly affected military personnel, who are not People Who Count.

But Russia -- or whoever -- screwed with People Who Count when they hacked the DNC and Jon Podesta.

"What we've seen is that these are two cyber incidents that are malicious in nature but materially different," Earnest said, defending the administration's decision to issue sanctions in response to the Russian hack but not the Chinese hack.

The OPM hack was one of the largest data breaches in the history of the United States. More than 20 million people were affected, with the Chinese gaining possession of names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, places of residence, and sensitive information from background investigations.

"I'm just saying that it's different than seeking to interfere in the conduct of a U.S. national election," Earnest said.

"It's different because I said so" is pretty much the most contemptuous answer you can offer. You might as well just take your dick all the way out and say, "Because some people just matter more in this world."

Posted by Ace at 06:04 PM Comments

Ford Announces It Will Keep 700 Jobs in the US, Rather Than Move Them to Mexico

—Ace

So they say, anyway.

Posted by Ace at 04:29 PM Comments

Bill and Hillary Clinton Will Attend Trump's Inauguration

—Ace

They say it's to help with the peaceful transition of power, but I imagine it's because they heard there'd be graft and ass there for the taking.

Posted by Ace at 03:18 PM Comments

Claim: 2017's Big Fashion/Pop Trend Will Be 80s Forever

—Ace

Eh, what do I know.

Two fashion analystas are projecting that 2017 is going to make 1987 look like 1983 or whatever. I have no idea how that joke is supposed to go.

The [Pinterest in-house trend analysis] team has analyzed the trends that have seen the most year-over-year pinning growth over the past year and that seem primed to peak in 2017. Among their forecasts is the belle sleeve top silhouette taking over the off-the-shoulder look, an even more heated interest in flair (as in things like stickers and pins), and of course, more '80s.

"Other big shifts were in political Ts (no surprise there), backless shoes--and not just the mule--and multiple earrings," writes WWD. "That goes hand-in-hand with the popularity of Eighties-style trends, such as high-tops, peg legs and denim skirts."

Meanwhile, retail analytic firm Edited is also forecasting trend temperatures in the '80s as well.

"The 1980s will be huge--everything from power suits and slouchy tailored trousers for office wear, through to off-the-shoulder looks, activewear and [over-the-top] ruffles," the report stated.

Okay, I wouldn't mind denim skirts. And feather earrings.

Anything kind of riding the line between "slutty mall-rat" and "slutty whore."

The article notes that Hollywood is rebooting Dynasty.

By the way, I bought some Vans a few months ago. The brand's been resuscitated, if you didn't know. J. Crew sells them, and they have their own store too.


Continue reading


Posted by Ace at 02:14 PM Comments

Settle for Meh: Megyn Kelly Leaving FoxNews for... NBC, Says NYT

—Ace

Surprise!

She's receiving an "undisclosed amount." She'll have a "triple role," doing some daytime news (like the View? or will she be on MSNBC?), some Sunday night type magazine show, and will also be part of NBC's super-amazing live political coverage.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

More: She says she wanted a better work-life balance or something.

Her statement on FaceBook:

ver a dozen years ago I started at Fox News in a job that would change my life. Now, I have decided to end my time at FNC, incredibly enriched for the experiences I've had. I have agreed to join NBC News, where I will be launching a new daytime show Monday through Friday, along with a Sunday evening news magazine program. I will also participate in NBC's breaking news coverage and its political and special events coverage.

While I will greatly miss my colleagues at Fox, I am delighted to be joining the NBC News family and taking on a new challenge. I remain deeply grateful to Fox News, to Rupert, Lachlan and James Murdoch, and especially to all of the FNC viewers, who have taught me so much about what really matters. More to come soon.
Happy New Year, and God bless.

This makes no sense, I know, but for some reason I keep thinking of Sweet Dee's explanation of a "yestergay" on Always Sunny. (CONTENT WARNING.)

Posted by Ace at 12:31 PM Comments

Hey, Celebrities Have Recorded Another One of those Videos
Videos
Where They Repeat
Repeat
Repeat
Repeat
The Last Word the Other One Said, Urging Congress to Stand Up
Stand Up
To Trump

—Ace

This ought to work. They always do.

Sadly, Steve Buscemi is in this one.


A slew of high-profile stars -- including Sally Field, former "The View" co-host Rosie Perez,"“Westworld's" Jeffrey Wright, Keegan-Michael Key, and "Boardwalk Empire" actor Steve Buscemi -- are calling on Congress to "vigorously oppose" any of President-elect Donald Trump's "racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, anti-worker, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-environmental policies."

"We demand that you block nominees who threaten the rights of women, the LGBT community, people of color, immigrants, and the poor," Key and Field say in the video released Tuesday, the same day the 115th Congress is poised to be sworn in.

Oh by the way, Bruce Springsteen is melting down as usual.

'I've felt disgust before, but never the kind of fear that you feel now,' Springsteen said of Trump and his administration

He added that he believes Trump appeals to the 'worst aspects' of society such as 'racism, bigotry, [and] intolerance'

'[M]y fear is that those things find a place in ordinary, civil society, demeans the discussion and events of the day, and the country changes,' said the rocker

Springsteen, 67, has been a vocal critic of Trump many times in the past, and he supported Hillary Clinton during the election

Posted by Ace at 10:54 AM Comments

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

Caravaggio Lizard.jpg

Boy Bitten by a Lizard
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

There are two versions of this painting; one in the Fondazione Roberto Longhi in Florence, and the one above in the National Gallery in London.

They are almost identical, but I vastly prefer the National Gallery version; it seems painted by a more skilled hand, and the light is much, much better.

Although I would take either one as a gift if any of you are so inclined, and are also skilled in the practical art of art theft.

Posted by CBD at 09:45 AM Comments

The Morning Report 1/3/17

—J.J. Sefton

1.jpeg

Good morning, kids. Well, the 115th Congress is gaveled in later today, heralding the start of the Trump era. I would't get too excited as we still have a rabid psychopath with 17 days left to fling poo and engage in a scorched earth policy before he's ejected. Even worse, we have the GOP on our side. Feh. Other than that, just when you think it's sort of safe to read Patrick Buchanan, he pulls his Father Coughlin routine by attempting to justify John Kerry's speech as a reasonable and rational position. Personally, I think Buchanan is always a better read in the original German. Anyway, have a better one and remain blessed.

Posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:00 AM Comments

Monday Overnight Open Thread (1/2/16) Mish-Mash Edition

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Tonight's ONT is a mish-mash. Damn, day 2 of the New Year and I've already broken a couple of resolutions. But the fish were biting today.

Quotes of The Day

Quote I

We are looking forward to the day when moderate Muslims will be able to take control of their governments, their educational systems, and their law and order, so the Western world could resume mutual constructive relations based on friendship and respect. The whole world is looking forward to that day and praying for a peaceful Middle East. The ball is now in the Muslim world's court. President Elect Donald J. Trump.

Does that sound like Adolf Hitler to you?

It's about time that they (the whining leftists) sucked it up and pulled up their big boy or big girl pants. Every American citizen at one time or the other faces a political election not to their liking. Your time for grieving is over, it is the United States of America. If not, f*cking leave.

Quote II

I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Barack Obama

While you were sucking up to them they were killing and raping people around the world.


Quote III

If living conditions don't stop improving in this country, we're going to run out of humble beginnings for our great men. Russell P. Askue


Quote IV

Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand. Thomas Aquinas

Continue reading


Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:05 PM Comments

So Like Almost Every "Journalist" Retweeted This Ego-Plumping Genitals-Pumping Daily Affirmation

—Ace


Posted by Ace at 08:44 PM Comments

#FakeNews: Social Justice Warrior College Newspaper the Washington Post Breathlessly Reports RUSSKIES HACKED OUR POWER GRIDZ!!!

—Ace

Then, over a series of edits, none of which acknowledged itself as a formal correction, they walked the story back into... one computer -- a laptop not connected to the grid at all -- having some malware on it of a type that is routinely purchased online by anyone who wants it.

But tell us all about the Fake News, boys.

The college newspaper The Washington Post is refusing to answer questions about its fact-checking procedures, especially regarding the fact-checking of misleading, clickbait #FakeNews headlines.

Posted by Ace at 05:50 PM Comments

An Open Letter to Egg McMuffin From a One-Time Supporter

—Ace

Why this guy continues annoying us, I have no idea.

Posted by Ace at 04:58 PM Comments

The Perfect Gift

—Ace


Yes, the people constantly lecturing others as if they were their inferiors are the ones without privilege, and those constantly being condescended to, demeaned, and disparaged are the ones with "privilege."

Posted by Ace at 02:55 PM Comments

Kurt Schlicter Es En Fuego!

—OregonMuse

I think he buys his monkey gland testosterone supplement from the same source as Tucker Carlson. Guy's been lighting it up all over the place since the election.

Here's his prediction for what Democrats will be doing in 2017. Hint: They'll be doubling down on stupid:

Sure, I think the Russians’ truthful revelations of true stuff that showed the true depth of Democratic corruption in a true way hurt Hillary. I just think that the left is deluding itself when it tells normal people that they were somehow suckered by the Russians’ truthful revelations of true stuff that showed the true depth of Democratic corruption. “You flyover rubes are so stupid that you can be manipulated by the facts that we were too incompetent to effectively hide from you!” is probably not a great way to win hearts and minds, but hey progs, feel free to go with it.

Read the whole thing.

Open Thread until ace shows up.

Posted by OregonMuse at 01:09 PM Comments

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

Dama_z_gronostajem.jpg

Lady with an Ermine (Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani)
Leonardo da Vinci

Yes...of course...it's a kind of weasel.

Posted by CBD at 09:40 AM Comments

The Morning Report 1/2/17

—J.J. Sefton

Mariah.jpg

Good morning, kids. Hope you all had a great New Year's celebration, although many if not all of you might still have today off. Used to be you went back to work on Monday if the new year fell on a Sunday so this is progress. Wifey and I went to see "Rogue One" and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. I give it a solid B. At any rate, the rage stroke continues with the Obama/Kerry pogrom. I better not say any more on that subject, so have a better one and remain blessed.

Posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:04 AM Comments



The AoSHQ Amazon Store


Top Headlines
Headlines: 01/06/2017
Headlines: 01/05/2017
Progs, Libs, Dems, you know the type. Coexist bumper stickers. Pardons for cop killers. They always want to give someone a 2nd chance, except for a young black man and an old white one. Why? Football of course. The butt hurt is stunning. They scream too many black males are incarcerated. This one isn't but he isn't supposed to excel in what he does best? Racists. Hypocrites. [Mis. Hum.]
8 Facts on the "Russian Hacks". Invesigative journalist (few & far between) Sharyl Attkisson's piece lays it out. Fact 2. U.S. officials have not alleged that anyone falsified the emails provided to WikiLeaks. So, the DNC was as lazy and sleazy as the emails made them out to be. Go figure. [Mis. Hum.]
Conform or face destruction: The "Craziness" of the Climate Science Echo Chamber [dri]
Headlines: 1/4/17
Reminder: Always Sunny Returns RIGHT NOW (10 PM) on FXX
Would have mentioned it sooner but I just found out myself
They run re-runs later in case you see this late
Lately I've Been Listening to Pink Floyd's "The Wall" Edge-to-Edge and Let Me Tell You, Damn, It Holds Up
And seriously, there's nothing here to skip. It's just a moody opera that works all the way through [Update]: And here for your enjoyment is Another Brick In The Wall - Sh*ttyfluted. [OregonMuse]
"Do you know anybody who owns a pickup?"
Journalists: "You triggered me, you racist!"
[ArthurK]
As the GOP looks to repair/replace Obamacare, I humbly offer my analysis from 2009 of HR 3200 (the ACA predecessor) in the light of known systems design principles and issues. Even I'm startled at how well those principles predicted what would happen with Obamacare. The GOP would do well to learn from the lessons of the past. Key quote, IMHO:

While you may argue with Gall’s maxims above, I know of no serious systems designer who will state that it is possible to build a large, complex system that works from [existing] complex systems that work poorly, if at all. The quality of your original and leveraged systems provides an upper bound on the quality of your final system. To believe otherwise is to succumb to wishful thinking.

[Fritzworth]
How soon does Trump name Scalia's replacement after being sworn in on 1/20? Does Mitch McConnell have the balls fortitude to fight the Dems? Little Chuckie Schumer is talking tough about SCOTUS nominees. Nuclear option anyone? [Mis. Hum.]
Obama touted "Saved jobs". Never citing examples. Well, PE Trump can brag about Carrier and now Ford. Economic news continues to improve. It appears that construction jobs will be on the rise. [Mis. Hum.]
Of course Ace won't say anything. The modest guy that he is. The Daniel Simpson Day Award for Superior Blogging and Skulduggery Ace of Spades : Continues to bring the funny; and the Extraordinary League of Morons' comments are like butta. Or K-Y. Some kind of magical, velvet-like lube, anyhow. [Mis. Hum.]
Headlines: 1/3/17
Hall & Oates Totally Shred "Maneater"
This seems to be a genre of YouTube comedy video. I can't find others I like as much as this one. Good laughs. Thanks to @tmi3rd.
A-Ha Shredding "Take On Me" is pretty good too
Recent Comments
Carol: "Some aren't working for me either. ..."

rickb223 [/s][/b][/i][/u]: "Nood dump ..."

Occam's Epilady: "Is Al "I Have No Shame" Gore in NC, GA, SC, or VA ..."

rickb223 [/s][/b][/i][/u]: "Morning JJ ..."

cicero Kaboom! kid: "Back in the late 80s while I was out in Eastern KY ..."

J.J. Sefton: "DAY 1,522 0 to go (14 to Inauguration Day ) ..."

Colin: "I know everyone in the Chicago area will want tick ..."

MTF: "832 More info from Scankles released emails shows ..."

Carol: " MPPPP, Are you feeling better? ..."

Kodos the Executioner : "Sefton is late this morning. The yuuuge, opulent ..."

Ripley: "Now I'm hearing panicked reports about all the job ..."

Bruce: "I'm having trouble getting the links for  Fox ..."

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