With zero fanfare, a small flag-lowering ceremony was conducted in Kabul that marked the end of the war in Afghanistan.
As the military and political leadership continues to assure us that the Afghanistan army is up to the challenge of defending the country, the Taliban has continued to advance in several provinces while attacking targets of opportunity all across the country.
ISAF was set up after the U.S.-led invasion as an umbrella for the coalition of around 50 nations that provided troops and took responsibility for security across the country. It ends with 2,224 American soldiers killed, according to an Associated Press tally.
The mission, which was initially aimed at toppling the Taliban and rooting out al-Qaida following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, peaked at 140,000 troops in 2010. Obama ordered a surge to drive the insurgents out of strategically important regions, notably in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, where the Taliban had its capital from 1996 to 2001.
If the goal was to build Afghanistan into a viable secure nation-state, then the mission was a failure. But if the goal was to disrupt Islamic terror groups and keep them from establishing safe havens for training and preparations in Afghanistan, then it was a success. And whatever politicians have said over the years, I've always viewed the latter goal as the only real reason why we were in Afghanistan.
Well pretty much nothing other than political connections and a valid license it turns out.
Ms. Tyson said in a telephone interview several weeks after she drove in the motorcade that she had received little instruction from the Secret Service about what to do in the event of a high-speed emergency. She assumed that she should just follow the car in front of her no matter what happened.
"Whatever I am," she said, "is good enough for them."
"Good enough for them" is apparently having a driver's license and a clean criminal record, and knowing someone at the White House.
A week before Mr. Obama arrived in San Francisco, a childhood friend of Ms. Tyson's from Cupertino, Calif., who now works at the White House, reached out to her to see if she was interested in driving.
"He just texted me and said, 'Do you want to volunteer as part of this and drive in the motorcade?' " Ms. Tyson said. "It was kind of sudden. I didn't even know the president was going to be in town."
Ms. Tyson said that her driving record was "pristine" and that she had "driven a pickup truck but not a van."
Two-thirds of the revenues for Hollywood blockbusters are generated from overseas markets. China is far from being the most lucrative of these-according to Ben Fritz of the Wall Street Journal, it is fifth on the list, after the UK, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. But it is already a cash cow for Hollywood, with revenue hitting $3.55 billion this year, up 32 percent in the first nine months of 2014. Transformers: Age of Extinction took the lead with $320 million in profits.
Measure this against the potential of a Chinese market completely open and friendly to U.S. entertainment products, and you have all the explanation you need for why American movies feature so many North Korean villains and so few Chinese.
I've always wondered why living together before marriage seemed to correlate with later divorce but maybe the entire connection was actually due to bad methodology.
As it turns out, those studies that linked premarital cohabitation and divorce were measuring the wrong variable, says Arielle Kuperburg, a professor at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, who produced much of the research released Monday. The biggest predictor of divorce, she says, is actually the age at which a couple begins living together, whether before the wedding vows or after. . . .
Couples who begin living together without being married tend to be younger than those who move in after the wedding ceremony - that's why cohabitation seemed to predict divorce, Professor Kuperburg explains. But once researchers control for that age variable, it turns out that premarital cohabitation by itself has little impact on a relationship's longevity. Those who began living together, unmarried or married, before the age of 23 were the most likely to later split.
Alerted to the sale in Sydney of a book titled Women Who Deserve to go to Hell, which claims that only four women in history have matched male levels of "intelligence" and "perfection", local feminists reacted with uncharacteristic silence. This possibly had something to do with the book being sold in ______________.
This is why Noonan is on my For-Entertainment-Only list until 2018.
Peggy Noonan is an entirely different case. Little that's original appears in her writing. She's the voice of conventional wisdom, presented with a nice turn of phrase and, often, a moralistic tone. I can't recall ever learning anything significant from a Peggy Noonan column.
To make matters worse, one can't be sure that Noonan actually believes what she says. As I discussed here, during the Sarah Palin mania at the 2008 Republican convention, Noonan wrote a column in which she argued that Palin represents "a real and present danger to the American left" which therefore needs to "kill" her.
However, a few days later, when she thought her microphone was off, Noonan said that McCain had "blown it" by selecting Palin as his running mate. So much for the danger Palin's selection presented to the left.
Brooks and Noonan both write political commentary. In a sense, however, they are engaged in different businesses. Brooks, it seems to me, is on a search, at times, perhaps, a quixotic one, for insights. Noonan appears mainly to be in the business of telling people what they want to hear.
This is a good thing as it will let people get a degree for around $10K total (affordable with a part-time and summer job and with no student loans) and will put economic pressure on the existing clown-circus university system.
And speaking of clown-circuses the Cal-State Northridge Department of Social Work has beclowned itself. Quite an achievement when you're surrounded by clowns.
Scalise claims to not have known the group's background or ideology.
Although, you know, when a group is calling itself "Euro-American Unity," you should know. "Euro" and "European" and "European-American" are all buzzwords used by Duke and other white-rights folks.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the newly elected House majority whip, acknowledged Monday that he spoke at a gathering hosted by white nationalist leaders while serving as a state representative in 2002, thrusting a racial controversy into House Republican ranks days before the party assumes control of both congressional chambers.
The 48-year-old Scalise, who ascended to the House GOP’s third-ranking post earlier this year, confirmed through an adviser that he once appeared at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization.
That organization, founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"Beyond hosting a Web site, whitecivilrights.com, and staging an occasional conference, EURO is a paper tiger, serving primarily as a vehicle to publicize Duke’s writing and sell his books," the SPLC writes on its Web site.
In a statement, Scalise’s spokesperson Moira Bagley emphasized that the then-state lawmaker was unaware at the time of the group's ideology and its association with racists and neo-Nazi activists.
On Twitter, people are Questioning the Timing -- Why now, of all times? It's well after the elections, including the late runoff for the Senate seat; why drop this damaging information now?
One of those guys suggests that it's Scalise's camp who dumped the information -- getting it out there when it's harmless to do so.
There's some wrinkles here: A lot of Republicans don't know about Jeb Bush's various base-displeasing positions. But then, a lot of Republicans actually approve of those positions, too, or at least don't care, which may mean that Bush can win the nomination just by appealing to those liberal-ish Republicans, and, of course, by sucking up hundreds of millions in donor money.
In unrelated news, a candidate from the 2012 contest has just zoomed to first place in my own private poll.
The golf course, located on the Marine Corps Base Hawaii, is a regular stop for Obama when he's in the state, with the Ko’olau Mountains framing the front nine and majestic views of Pacific coastline spanning the back nine...
Still, anyone planning an event at the course when the president may be in town is warned about the potential for last-minute shuffling, said Naile Brennan, manager of K Bay Catering, which was handling logistics for the wedding....
So Obama came in to golf, and the wedding had to be re-located in a hurry.
President Privilege eventually called the bride -- after Bloomberg called him to let him know they were writing up his latest golf outrage.
With racial issues and policing headlining the political conversation in America in the midst of nationwide protests and the murder of two police officers in New York, President Barack Obama said he believes the issue of race relations is surfacing "in a way that probably is healthy."
...
"I actually think that [the U.S. is] probably in its day-to-day interactions less racially divided," Obama said in an interview with NPR released Monday and recorded before his family vacation in Hawaii. "The issue of police and communities of color being mistrustful of each other is hardly new; that dates back a long time. It's just something that hasn't been talked about."
We talk about it every Riot Season.
Meanwhile, one of the Ferguson protesters raising issues in a way that's probably healthy turns out to be an arsonist.
Joshua Williams has been everywhere: protesting in Ferguson, Mo., Washington, D.C., and Cleveland, Ohio. Now, he is in St. Louis, where police have arrested him for arson.
...
Williams has been portrayed in the media as an innocent victim fighting back against authority; he has been held up as the quintessential Ferguson protestor, decrying police brutality as he is time and again brutalized by police. When Williams interrupted a Ferguson City Council meeting in September and the meeting descended into chaos, for example, the New York Times published a photo of his disruptive antics with a caption that said that he had only "posed a question to the City Council."
...
On the night after Christmas, St. Louis County Police arrested Williams on suspicion of arson in a separate incident. Williams was reportedly involved in the looting and burning of a QuikTrip convenience store on Christmas Eve in Berkeley, Mo., a St. Louis suburb approximately two miles away from Ferguson. The police did not immediately respond to NRO’s request for comment.
"Angelina Jolie's entire family recently stepped out on the red carpet to support their mother's new movie, Unbroken. The couple's oldest biological child, who was assigned female at birth, joined brothers Maddox and Pax wearing sharp suits and short haircuts."
"I think you miss one very important point. He has had Al Sharpton to the White House 80, 85 times. Often when he's talking about police issues he has Al Sharpton sitting next to him. Have a poster boy for hating the police, it's Al Sharpton. You make Al Sharpton a close adviser, you're going to turn the police in America against you. You're going to tell the police in America we don't understand you. I saw this man help cause riots in New York; I've heard his anti-police invective first-hand. To have a man who hasn't paid $4 million in taxes, have a man who's spent his career helping to create riots and phony stories about police, to have that man sitting next to you speaks volumes. You know, actions speak louder than words. You put Al Sharpton next to you, you just told everyone you're against the police."
Jomah, a 17-year-old Syrian who joined Islamic State last year, sat in a circle of trainees for a lesson in beheading, a course taught to boys as young as 8.
Teachers brought in three frightened Syrian soldiers, who were jeered and forced to their knees. "It was like learning to chop an onion," Jomah said. "You grab him by the forehead and then slowly slice across the neck."
A teacher asked for volunteers and said, "Those who behead the infidels will receive gifts from God," recalled Jomah, who didn't want his full name revealed. The youngest boys shot up their hands and several were chosen to participate. Afterward, the teachers ordered the students to pass around the severed heads.
-- From a story on the Danish city of Aarhus' cuddly attitude towards returning jihadis.
The B-movie studio American International Pictures (AIP) hired Miliius as a writer. His first script was a remake of the Dirty Dozen called The Devil's Eight (1969)-eight, because AIP couldn't afford 12 actors. Next George Hamilton asked him to script a biopic of daredevil Evel Kenievel (1971). The subject of compensation arose. What do you want? Hamilton asked. Milius answered: "I want girls, gold, and guns."
...It is the mid-1980s. There is a party at the house of screenwriter Paul Schrader. Milius, who wrote Dirty Harry and Apocalypse Now and directed Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn, is there when Pauline Kael arrives. Kael is the liberal New Yorker film critic. To her, a Milius film is only slightly better than a slime mold.
Milius has had some wine. He has an intermediary tell Kael that he would like a "conference" with her. A message comes back: Kael wants to know if Milius, who in meetings with executives was fond of displaying pistols, is armed.
"Tell her I'm not armed," Milius says. "But I myself am a weapon."
-- From a profile of John Milius by Matthew Continetti
Okay this isn't the dumbest thing Tyson has ever said since the finger-derived decimal system does influence how we do things e.g. Top 10 lists, 100 best whatever, etc. But it turns out he's wrong on the history which could have been easily checked with a Google search . Which is really the problem with Tyson - he's not dumb but he is lazy and used to coasting on his reputation of being smart. But smart is no replacement for actual specific knowledge.
Johnny Manziel threw a party Friday night that was attended by multiple members of the Cleveland Browns, triggering a tumultuous weekend during which several players were punished by the team, according to multiple reports.
Receiver Josh Gordon, who was suspended Saturday for a violation of team rules, was one of the players in attendance, according to cleveland.com.
The Browns also fined Manziel on Saturday for being late for treatment on his injured hamstring, a source told ESPN. Less than 24 hours later, rookie cornerback Justin Gilbert was deactivated for Sunday's season finale against the Baltimore Ravens after missing a team meeting the previous night, a source told ESPN.
Josh Gordon was one of several Browns players who attended a party thrown Friday night by Johnny Manziel, according to a report. Gordon was suspended Saturday for missing a team walk-through.
Both Manziel and Gordon were absent from the Browns' walk-through on Saturday morning, and the team had trouble locating them, a source close to the team told ESPN.
There have been rookies with terrible attitudes.
There have been rookies with questionable skills.
Has there ever been a highly drafted rookie QB with such a gawdawful combination of both?
Seems that story making the Internet rounds about the ATF's conflicting ruling based on use is pretty much wrong.
Robert’s article said that the ATF has “reversed” itself, and that’s not really true. This latest ruling is 100% consistent and in-line with everything else that has come before it. The entire reason we have the pistol brace and can use it in the manner to which we are accustomed is this idea of intent, and so long as the intent is to build a pistol when installing the brace there is no problem.
It's a shame this really even needs to be said, but your chances of being shot by a policeman increase exponentially if you're stupid enough to point a gun at him.
If there are topics you're interested in seeing in the gun thread, please send them to AoSHQGunThread at gmail. You can also send them to me on Twitter at @AndyM1911.
So.....here we have a golden opportunity to crowd-source Soothsayer's new diet.
A few restrictions:
1. Eating better probably means avoiding processed foods, especially those that are loaded with simple carbohydrates (sugars), eating more vegetables, and maybe cutting a few calories. It (hopefully) doesn't mean losing 80 lbs. and quitting smoking at the same time.
2. Nobody will stay on a diet that is boring and tasteless. It's tough enough without having to eat stuff that tastes of cardboard, chalk and grass clippings.
3. Assume basic cooking skills and access to mainstream products. For all I know he can find Paraguayan bee pollen extract at his corner store, but stick to American foodstuffs.
4. Balut, Casu Marzu, and all insects are banned. Fried tarantulas are restricted because they are fattening.
Here's my suggestion: Rice and Beans. Yes, beans in dried form take time, but canned beans are available everywhere, are inexpensive, and combined with rice provide all the amino acids necessary for the human diet. And a big pot of rice and eans will last several days and can be flavored with all sorts of garnishes and flavorings. For instance, I will saute some baby Bok Choi in a bit of vegetable oil, add a few drops of sesame oil at the end, and toss them in rice and beans. Good tasting, nice and healthy, cheap, and easy. If you can't find baby Bok Choi, try it with fried guinea pig.
And because you haven't seen enough "Best Of" lists this year....here is my mini list of the best cook book, best food book, and best dish of 2014.
Balaboosta actually came out at the end of last year, but I didn't see it until this year. It's a great ride through a transplanted Israeli chef's kitchen, with lots of interesting and delicious recipes.
Meat, by Pat LaFrieda is a book that I was looking forward to hating with a burning hot intensity. He is a celebrity butcher here in the NY metro area, and seemingly every new restaurant proudly proclaims that they are using only LaFrieda beef. It is irritating and pompous. Unfortunately this book is gorgeous, with great photos, clear explanations of the various cuts, and some very nice recipes. LaFrieda's love of the high-end meat industry is obvious, and the dude knows of what he speaks. And....his recipe for the perfect steak is strange, and fabulous.
The best dish is obviously intensely personal. But on Christmas Eve I had a pretzel-crusted halibut that may have been the best piece of fish I have ever eaten. It was cooked perfectly (that means in butter...and lots of it), has a marvelous crust, at once crunchy and delicate, and the fish itself was incredible. The restaurant was an unassuming bistro on the Upper West Side of Manhattan called Cafe Tallulah. The rest of the meal was fine. Nothing great, but nothing bad either. it was this one dish that made the meal.
Gang of Gaming Morons already nailed the best food movie of the year, so check out his list...it's better than this one!
This is a fun and simple appetizer that is infinitely variable. Swap bacon for the prosciutto, use cooked potato instead of the artichoke hearts, etc.
Artichoke and Bean Crostini
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
Ingredients:
Vegetable cooking spray
4 very thin slices prosciutto
12 (1/4-inch thick) slices rustic country bread
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 (12-ounce) package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Spray a baking sheet with vegetable cooking spray.
Lay the prosciutto in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until crispy. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
On another baking sheet, arrange the bread slices in a single layer. Using a pastry brush, brush the bread with 1/4 cup of the oil. Bake until golden, about 12 to 15 minutes.
In a food processor, combine the artichoke hearts, beans, cheese, basil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Pulse until the mixture is chunky. With the machine running, slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil.
Spoon the artichoke mixture onto the crostini.
Crumble the prosciutto and sprinkle on top. Drizzle with oil and serve.
I have no pretence of calling this a Gaming Thread but I heard you like lists
—Gang of Gaming Morons!
Christmas so there isn't much news. I don't have my....I wouldn't call it an GOTY as I haven't played many games this year but something resembling on what I liked that I played this year. Christmas week kicked my ass.
So did anyone get anything gaming related for Christmas? Only thing I got was a new keyboard. Asked for a new Ducky after I fried mine with ice tea only to end up with one of those Logitech Orion keyboards. It's cool, keys took a day or so to get used to when using it for anything other than playing games. It's also damn near seizure inducing if you crank the color effects to max speed.
I sat down with $20 and saw how far I could stretch out that money on quantity and quality during the Steam sale. Something different than the usual "hey, these games are cheap and good".
And I'm gonna throw up my favorite movie and music lists. I got crapped on last year for my music tastes so lets see how bad it is this year.
How far can you stretch a $20 during the Steam Sale?
Now, I did skip the daily and the flash deal things just to keep me from getting a headache.
Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION ($3.39) - One of the best shmups of the last few years. When you get into the zone, the game is pure bliss dodging some breath taking bullet patterns.
Toki Tori (49 cents) - Great little platform puzzler that gets hard as balls in the later levels. Graphics are real charming. They don't make games like this any more (for better or worse).
Puzzler World 2 (49 cents) - Do you remember those brain teaser books of yore? Yeah, well this is that just an ass load of them. Great little time waster. I'd get the second one as it's got a better variety of puzzles.
Savant - Ascent (99 cents) - Fun little beat'em up with solid controls and enough upgrades to make things interesting.
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death (99 cents) - For a low budget God of War game, it's surprisingly quite decent for what it is. And the devs knew it too which makes the game fun with it's own brand of kitsch.
SpaceChem (99 cents) - Do you have a PHD in geometry? It's basically Lazer Khet: The Puzzle Game but really damn hard. MENSA members only. If you can bust your balls to figure out the puzzles, it's pretty damn rewarding and there is enough content to keep you satisfied.
Hexcells Plus ($1.01) - You ever thought that what was missing from Minesweeper was a puzzle mode? Well, this will scratch that itch. It's got a real nice calming ability to itself while throwing you some tricky puzzles.
Beyond Divinity ($1.19) - Classic Diablo clone with a huge amount of ambition. Some of that ambition falls flat and it's got some eurojank but damn is this game just a ton of fun.
Noitu Love 2 ($1.99) - One of the best 2D action beat'em ups of the last 10 years. If you dug stuff like Gunstar Heroes, you owe it to yourself to play this game.
Penumbra Collector's Pack ($2.29.) - Awesome hide & seek adventure game. It's what laid the groundwork for Amnesia and frankly, has a better story and better "scare moments". Very much worth checking out.
La-Mulana ($2.99) - Really hard as balls Metroidvania with a fun sense of exploration and a nice 16 bit art style. Prepare to die a lot, prepare to have a lot of fun.
Total ends up at $19.54 which leaves you some more change to grab any other cheap game to top you off.
-----------MOVIES-----------
Black Coal, Thin Ice - This is my favorite film of the year. It wears it's well worn noir tropes quite proudly but it's really a case of just some outstanding acting and breathtaking cinematography of areas of China that just isn't filmed enough. Though it doesn't exactly tread new ground, with how tight the writing is, it's easy to see how it took Diao Yinan 8 years to write it while building on his under appreciated Night Train film. Liao Fan is one of those actors that you notice but he's never really given anything to do but he took this main role as far as the material could take him. He nailed the haunted washed up cop looking for redemption. He deserved the Silver Bear and was frankly robbed out of his Golden Horse. I thought Secret sucked which didn't make me expect much out of Gwei Lun-Mei but in this flick, she has to be one of the best fragile femme fatales I've ever seen. She's good, real good while making her relationship with Fan very believable.
Brotherhood of Blades - The wuxia genre has been basically dead since Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou shit up the joint with their films a decade ago but occasionally in the sea of crap, you do get a really good one every full moon (Reign of The Assassins being the last one). So when someone hits it out of the park, you have to sit up and take notice. This grounded (for wuxia) martial arts epic checks off all the things you want: insane wirework in some over the top action scenes, a mostly well written multi layered story (some of the conspiracies lost me a bit on first viewing), top notch acting that actually makes you care about the characters and though it doesn't have a House of Flying Daggers level of gaudiness, it's a really lavish production which they really had to rubs pennies together considering the small budget. I'm not exactly a fan of Chang Chen (too much of a pretty boy) but man did he really knock it out of the park while hoping for the best with his relationship with Zhou. I really like Shishi Liu when she is on the big screen, she's good on tv but she shines on the big screen letting her bust her hump and take time to actually act which she is quite good at.
Guardians of the Galaxy - What else is there to say about this film that hasn't been said before? When they announced James Gunn was going to do it, the only feeling I had was this was going to be one of the biggest bombs of all-time or it's gonna be one of the best Marvel flicks of all-time. I guess if I had to poke anything at this flick was all the set pieces were way too claustrophobic but at first viewing you don't really notice it with it's writing. And even with repeated viewings, it doesn't bother me too much, just something that stuck out to me.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Didn't like Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it was boring and plodded way to much so I went in with low expectations which lead me to be quite surprised in this. Gary Oldman is always awesome and he was especially awesome as the only dude with a clue. Still like seeing the can't we get along people getting proven that no, they can't. The tech behind the ape performances continues to impress me.
The Raid 2 - I think the quality of films of Evans and Uwais is getting worse (Merantau was better than The Raid which was better than the Raid 2) but they're still so much fun with some great fight scenes (prison scene and fight against the assassins) and Iko Uwais can actually act. I dunno what else to say, nothing else really stands out other than it just being a fun film.
Chef - What can I say, I really like Jon Favreau (even thought Couples Retreat wasn't bad) and this right here is a solid heartwarming family comedy with some of Favreau's better writing to date. For someone who has been in a restaurant kitchen, everything dealing with cooking was dead on to the point where it was believable while having some fun with it. Of all the cameos, nothing feels forced while filling out the scenes with some class. You don't get these kind of films that often anymore and it's nice when it's actually good.
Hungry Ghost Ritual - As anything other than a pizza & beer horror flick, this flick is really bad. Does the story make sense? Nope. Do you care about anyone in this flick? Nope. But this flick shares a lot of similarities of the Category III heyday that it apes, it's a lot of schlocky fun with some pretty good gore. I got what I came for in this flick while chowing down on some Valeo's and Spotted Cow. Call it the Joe Bob Briggs Special. And even though it's a directorial debut from star Nick Cheung, he probably shouldn't direct again.
The Suspect - Bit of a cop out as this did come out in Korea on Christmas day last year but eh. This fast paced (no joke, it's just non-stop balls to the wall) North Korea - South Korea spy thriller is well worth watching (it's on Netflix). Never would have expected nerdy & nebish Gong Yoo to be able to pull off the bad ass spy trapped behind enemy lines who also being on a mission of revenge after the Norks killed his wife and child. South Korea can do spy thrillers in their sleep, they're the best around at it and this one is one of the best ones in the last few years.
The Babadook - What do you get from distilling horror films of the last 80 years? You get The Babadook as it weaves it's tale through pretty much everything that has come before. I know a lot of people went all "it's German expressionism" and they would be mostly right though personally, the film comes off as something Val Lewton would have made in his prime. The notes of the film is perfectly dense and ambiguous while having a great creature design (of what you can see). Seeing Essie Davis in something other than Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (you should watch it, it's good) was also fun. Horror has been way too cheap lately and this does a good job bringing back some actual terror. I do wish it wasn't so damn pretentious at spots.
Jodorowsky's Dune - Man I wish this film was made. Like, if there was anything you wanted to know about Jodorowsky's vision of adapting this thing, it's all here with the who's who rogue gallery of artists. This thing just beats down the door in how awesome this would have been while every one seems excited in reminiscing about just the whole production was heading before it got shut down because of budget reasons. Would have been better than what Lynch gave us. Makes for a great double viewing with The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
----------MUSIC-------------
Lack of Afro - Music for Adverts - I've been following him since his debut album, Press On (Touch My Soul is the shit) , came out and he's always been a dude who has been really damn solid but you always had a sneaking suspicion that he had something more to give to get to a new height. This album is that next step and it's far and away the best album of 2014. Everything is on point with killer soulful licks while Jack Tyson-Charles croons away that makes a grown man weep (he's on 5 of the 12 songs).
Roni Size - Take Kontrol - If you didn't grow up listening to Roni Size, his first album in almost 15 years is pretty dated but man did this thing really scratch my nostalgic itch for some Roni Size. This whole is basically a journey of him reliving the albums he's released in the past with touching on stuff like Brown Paper Bag and Scrambled Eggs. I dunno, I know it's not a good album but man did this dude fill my Jr. High and Highschool days and I'm getting to the age where nostalgia isn't a bad thing. We got a new Portishead album (which sucked) and now we got a new Roni Size album, all we need now is a new album from DJ Krush and those years of my youth have been re-lived.
Odesza - In Return - I really didn't like their debut album, it was messy and a lot of the beats didn't work IMO but this one they really dialed it in and cleaned up their act creating a rich sound while still being damn chilled. And I don't know who Zyra is but she really is the standout vocalist on the album, her songs on this album is really good.
Megan Washington - There There - I really like this girl's voice. First time I heard her was King of the Rodeo on The Bamboos' Sidestepper album and I fell in love with her voice. She's not exactly a trailblazer with music styles, she started off with jazz and funk on other people's stuff while doing her indie pop thing and with her sophomore album, she's gone towards more 80's style pop music. And you know what, she nails everything thrown at her with her vocal range. And her writing is pretty good with interesting hooks. If you want to ding the album, as much as I really like Limitless, it doesn't have a song that makes you go wow like How to Tame Lions or Clementine.
BabyMetal - BabyMetal - After 3 1/2 years of singles, they finally released their first "album" which for the most part just collects most of those singles. And I'm totally cool with that as the songs though are well worn with me are still good. Plus it's kinda par for the course to release something like this in Japan as your first "album". For them doing this for awhile now (was a side thing to keep some junior idols active), they're still a lot of fun with their over produced studio tracks and little girls singing. Nothing is deep or anything, it's just really fun pop music. What else can I say, she's got a good voice, she can write, she's hot and single.
Star Guitar - Schrodinger's Scale - As I get older, I've been finding myself liking more stuff that I would have considered muzak no more than 10 years ago and for that type of stuff, this album is really good with the main focus being on someone banging on a keyboard. Everything is focused on the keyboard and it's a good choice as it's quite pleasing. Not for everyone but I dug this album
Third Coast Kings - West Grand Boulevard - Michigan funk by the way of Italy. Even had to pay import prices to get this album. That being said, I've seen these guys live before and they're really good musicians and their sophomore album is better than their self titled debut. They are really getting into their groove as one of the best funk bands around. That being said, I really do wish Michelle Camilleri would come back as she really makes their music pop. If you dig funk, this is a must check out album
Perturbator - Dangerous Days - I think this is his best album. It's really good in it's dark and brooding chiptune. Every track just flows into the next making for a really nice package. Just one of those albums that makes for great background music. As with all of Perturbator, it's and either or situation as there really isn't much middle ground on if you like him or not.
L'Orange - The Orchid Days - After Wax Tailor went off the deep end, I started listening to this dude for my landscapes filled with jazzy hop beats with a soul and superb knowledge on when to drop a sample, a singer or rapper to keep the overarching narrative moving. Not everyone can paint with a musical brush but this man knows what's up. It's quite tantalizing in how it's layered in the story it tells. And to top it off, he's got some room to grow still.
My Twitter so you can tell me I have horrible taste in two different places
Early Poll Finds Bush Surge After Bush Pre-Announcement
—Gabriel Malor
Gah! Updated Poll (12:24pm): I was trying to use all of CNN's choices (plus Romney) and messed that up. New poll is now up. If you already voted, vote again.
Original post:
Early polling is not a predictor of who the Republican candidate will be or even which Republican candidates will run in the primary. Nor does it predict who will win the general election. That is not the purpose of early polling.
The purpose of early polling is to get a sense of where people's minds and money are at when the poll is taken. Yes, that includes name recognition, which is bizarrely dismissed as unimportant even though it factors quite a bit into who has the fundraising juice to make credible bids for the White House (more on this below).
First, it's no surprise to see the Bush surge since he just announced his intention to announce his intention to run for president, or something. As the only candidate sticking his hand out right now, except Sen. Paul maybe, he's bound to peel off some respondents.
Second, check out question 35 (pdf). The tendency of voters to emphasize electability will once again be a big factor in voter choices, which may explain why Bush and Christie are out ahead of more polarizing potential candidates. Although Bush and Christie remain public figures, they haven't exactly been rushing to get into the papers and onto the Sunday talk shows.
Third, the margin of error here is plus or minus 4.5 points, meaning the actual electorate is likely to have Bush out ahead and then every other named candidate in about the same spot. In other words, lest there be any confusion, no one is out yet (except Portman, who said he isn't running), although that is not to say they all have an even chance.
On that point, some of the named potential candidates have the fundraising chops to pull off a credible bid and some do not. The no question, top-tier candidates in the power-fundraiser category includes Bush and Christie, and also Gov. Perry, based on his 2012 take. (BTW, do you notice the commonality there?) Folks that struggled with fundraising in 2012, like Sen. Santorum, are not credible candidates from a fundraising standpoint. But then we've got unknown quantities like Gov. Walker and Sens. Cruz and Paul. All three have national profiles and all three are expected to run (assuming Paul can get his legal issues sorted). Once the race actually gets started and the public has a better idea of their attractiveness to donors, expect to see them get a heavy bounce from electability-minded voters.
Alright, I was planning to start running our AOSHQ straw poll posts again after the race gets started, but what the hell, let's see where people are today.
Sunday Morning Book Thread 12-28-2014: Wring Out The Old [OregonMuse]
—Open Blogger
Strahav Library, Prague Same Library As A Few Weeks Ago, But With Different Lighting
Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread. The only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Or kilts. Kilts are OK, too. But not tutus.
When Seconds Count, Police Are Minutes Away
Recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, and Brooklyn, NY, has caused the police to come under greater scrutiny. And that's a good thing, all in all. But Law enforcement is a peculiar institution. We use our tax money to hire and train people to protect us from crime, but actually, they are not obligated to do so. Which, obviously, is kind of weird. If I pay someone to paint my house, I expect him to paint my house, and if he doesn't, I can take him to court. But you can't take the police to court if they fail to protect you. There have been been any number of lawsuits initiated by people whom law enforcement failed to protect, and these suits have always been denied. The position of the courts has always been that it is unreasonable to expect the police to be able to prevent each and every instance of each and every crime.
Which, actually, is not an unreasonable argument. The police aren't omniscient supermen (and, in fact, it would be rather scary if they were) so there's always going to be the possibility that they won't get there in time. That's the point of the book Dial 911 and Die: The Shocking Truth About the Police Protection Myth by Richard W. Stevens, published in 1999. This is a compendium of all the ways that law enforcement is not obligated to protect you.
This is from one of the reviews:
Do the police have the obligation to arrest someone who repeatedly violates a domestic violence protective order? No.
Can the police ignore an emergency call for assistance in order to do paperwork? Yes.
Do the police have the obligation to respond to a 911 call for help? No.
What if they promise that "help is on the way"? Do they then have an obligation to respond? Still no.
If the police witness a crime in progress, must they intervene to protect the innocent? No again.
The book documents all of these depressing instances with the relevant court cases. So, given all that, what should we do? What can we do? I would think that this should be enough to show even the most obtuse progressive the absurdity of gun control laws, and also the perniciousness of the "only the police should be allowed to have guns" argument, which you sometimes hear made by law enforcement officials.
I mean, do they know the bind that gun control laws puts ordinary citizens in? The police don't have to protect us, and we're denied the means to protect ourselves. What then? A pointy stick? Longbows?
Skullduggery Up Near The Roof of the World
For those of you who like exotic locations, mystery writer Eliot (one 'l') Pattison kas a series featuring Shan Tao Yun, a former senior inspector in Beijing's Public Security Bureau, that take place in Tibet. The series started out in 1999 with The Skull Mantra. The latest, Soul of the Fire, is the eighth novel in the series.
Pattison is also the author of Original Death and Bone Rattler, both of which are set in colonial America. And at the other end of things, there's Ashes of the Earth, a post-apocalyptic America.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School's sleep medicine department put 12 healthy young adults through a two-week experiment, in which the participants would either read a light-emitting ebook for four hours before bedtime or a printed book. Study participants reading a light-emitting ebook took on average almost 10 minutes longer to fall asleep and said they were less sleepy an hour before bedtime than they were reading a paper book.
They also had suppressed evening levels of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin - readers of print showed no suppression - and significantly less REM (rapid eye movement) sleep than print book participants. The next morning, they took "hours longer to fully 'wake up' and attain the same level of alertness", researchers have reported
Note that if you're using the basic Kindle, or original Nook, or any other e-reader that isn't backlit, the results of this study do not apply to you. On the other hand, only 12 experimental subjects is an awfully small sample size to be making conclusions about.
Surveying the latest research, Jabr speculates that reading traditional books allows readers to locate a text within a mental geography. "Much as we might recall that we passed the red farmhouse near the start of a hiking trail before we started climbing uphill toward the forest," writes Jabr, "we remember that we read about Mr. Darcy rebuffing Elizabeth Bennett at a dance on the bottom left corner of the left-hand page in one of the earlier chapters of Jane Austen’s 'Pride and Prejudice.'"
These sorts of things are supposedly more difficult to keep track of when scrolling through digital text. And presumably it doesn't matter if the e-reader is backlit or not. Although many e-text readers, such as the Google Play book app and the Nook reader, to named just two, do a pretty good job of simulating page turning rather than simply having you move the text up and down in a scrolling motion. So I'm not seeing much of a problem here.
Movie Books
The nameless moron commenter MMC8r (you know who you are) mentioned this one last week: As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary 'Westley' Elwes is a behind-the-scenes memoir of the making of this iconic movie that has more quotable lines than any other movie I can think of (hey, ever notice that the LOTR trilogy, as great as it is, has virtually no memorable lines?).
I tend to not like these kind of "fan" books. I very much enjoy the Princess Bride movie every time I watch it, but I've never felt the need to learn anything more about it. It's kind of like breaking something when you take it apart. But, YMMV.
* Brian De Palma, the director of “Carrie,” helped to write the opening crawl
* Christopher Walken was originally cast as Han Solo
* Solo was partly based on Francis Ford Coppola. (At the time, he was a young, seductive, swashbuckling smoothie who had impressed George Lucas by talking Warner Brothers into funding "Apocalypse Now.")
* Toshiro Mifune was almost cast as Obi-Wan Kenobi
How did a few notes scribbled on a legal pad in 1973 by George Lucas, a man who hated writing, turn into a four billion dollar franchise that has quite literally transformed the way we think about entertainment, merchandizing, politics, and even religion? A cultural touchstone and cinematic classic, Star Wars has a cosmic appeal that no other movie franchise has been able to replicate. From Jedi-themed weddings and international storm-trooper legions, to impassioned debates over the digitization of the three Star Wars prequels, to the shockwaves that continue to reverberate from Disney’s purchase of the beloved franchise in 2012, the series hasn’t stopped inspiring and inciting viewers for almost forty years. Yet surprisingly little is known about its history, its impact—or where it’s headed next.
So George Lucas hated writing? Huh. Actually, that would explain a lot.
Books Of Note
Critics are already starting to call Victoria: A Life by A. N. Wilson the definitive biography of Queen Victoria (1819-1901):
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, she had ruled for nearly sixty-four years. She was a mother of nine and grandmother of forty-two and the matriarch of royal Europe through her children’s marriages. To many, Queen Victoria is a ruler shrouded in myth and mystique, an aging, stiff widow paraded as the figurehead to an all-male imperial enterprise. But in truth, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch was one of the most passionate, expressive, humorous and unconventional women who ever lived
What follows is a list of links to every 2014 book thread. There's a metric boatload of book recommendations in these links, so this is your easy reference point. So you won't ever have to say you have nothing to read.
Also, I would like to take the opportunity at year's end to publicly thank ace for letting me do this. I never asked for his permission, by the way, which, if you think about it, is way presumptuous on my part, considering that this isn't my blog and I'm just some guy. I'm glad that ace is the generous and tolerant sort. I remember the days when he was lucky if he could get 20-30 comments on one of his threads. It's been ace's hard work over the years that has built up the audience of the AoSHQ blog and I'm deeply grateful that he lets me borrow it every week for the book thread.
Also, a big thank you to all of you 'rons and 'ettes. It's your comments and your recommendations, your collective Horde knowledge that make the book thread as fun and informative as it is. And speaking of comments and recommendations:
So far I have learned that even by 1834, the 'White moves first' rule had not yet been set in stone. The author has concluded from the evidence that Black moved first in approximately half of the games. So in order to avoid confusion, the game scores were adjusted so that White was assigned to the player that moved first.
___________
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.
Early Morning Thread 12/27/14: Strother Martin edition. [krakatoa]
—Open Blogger
Apologies for a content-free thread. The post-gun show report has some unfinished business, and the ham recipes I promised are not ready either, as I cannot read my wife's handwriting.
The communication failure is most certainly my own fault; her elegant script too beauteous for heathern * eyes such as mine to ken.
* as we would say in "the Craig".**
** well honestly, as only one person would say, but it was so cute I had to steal it from her.
Greetings fellow hobo hunters. Welcome to the last Late Night Bedspins edition of 2014. As you may know, Late Night Bedspins is the occasional showcase of good music you may have overlooked or missed.
Tonight's band is called "Fitz and the Tantrums". I was going to feature them on a post a few years ago but figured they would become popular and would need no introduction to AoS Nation. Recently their music became featured in an advertising campaign for New Amsterdam Vodka. Please turn up the volume and enjoy.
Note: Some have commented that the lead singer Michael Fitzpatrick sounds a lot like Daryl Hall of Hall & Oats fame. Below is a jam session featuring both Fitzpatrick and Daryl Hall. The voice similarities are truly amazing!
Some of these tweets woule be bizarre even if Blumenthal was commenting from the point of view of having seen the film.
"I haven’t seen American Sniper, but correct me if I'm wrong: An occupier mows down faceless Iraqis but the real victim is his anguished soul," Blumenthal wrote smugly on his Twitter account. "[T]he whole film's appeal seems to derive from the latent racism that led America into Iraq."
OK, Max. I'll correct you because you're not only wrong, you are insanely wrong.
Those "faceless Iraqis" were trying to kill American soldiers. No doubt you would have devoutly wished them success in that endeavor, but the military takes a dim view of people trying to kill their men. Kyle's job was to kill them before they killed his fellow soldiers and countrymen. It was, after all, a war where the object is to kill more of the enemy than they kill of yours.
So I guess we'll be waiting a long time for Max to apply this same logic to the President who mows down faceless Iraqis, Syrians, Libyans, etc. with drones.
he studied the science of human gas, which includes a 1969 study warning that astronaut farts could cause fireballs, research that men actually don't fart more than women, and a look at why farts are so reviled (an anthropologist says they are "invisible" and "we cannot actively avoid them," reports Smithsonian).
In 2013, Guardian Of Valor made headlines when American Idol contestant Matthew Farmer admitted that his tale of suffering from a life-threatening war injury "was all lies" on Anderson's website.
"He told the judges his stutter was caused by a grenade explosion, but some guys who served with him in Iraq reached out to say it was actually caused by an overdose of acne medication and alcohol," explains Anderson, who has a backlog of "thousands" of potentially bogus soldiers that he hopes to eventually look into.
Baseball Thread: The Winter Meetings/Start of The Off-season (BCochran)
—Open Blogger
People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.
-- Rogers Hornsby
Hello again, Horde.
So apparently you folks, or at least quite a few of you, enjoyed the World Series threads and asked for an occasional baseball thread through the offseason to keep us all up to date on what's happening. CBD was kind enough to encourage that idea. So here we go....
So...baseball went insane. The Winter Meetings looked like a Best Buy at 12:01am on Black Friday. The deals came fast, furious and never seemed to end. We saw huge names flying all over the place. And not just salary dumps like we're accustomed to. No, we saw teams trading value for value, star for star. There's no way I could recap everything without it looking like an Ace movie review on PEDs, so I'm just going to hit some of the high points as best I can.
The very first big move of the offseason came from the Cubs. The Cubs enticed Joe Maddon to leave sunny Tampa Bay and make his home in the Windy City. Maddon is considered one of the very best managers in baseball and is a huge get for the Cubs. But that was just the start. The Cubs have focused mostly on pitching so far this offseason and started their player acquisitions with one of the biggest names out there, Jon Lester. They also added pitcher Jason Hammel and catcher Miguel Montero.
The Southsiders decided that they wanted to play as well and signed pitcher Jeff Samardzija (which you college football fans may remember as a standout WR for the Fighting Irish not that long ago) as well as closer David Robertson and first baseman Adam LaRoche. The LaRoche signing raised a few eyebrows as the White Sox signed first baseman Jose Abreu just last season.
I think it's clear that the biggest splash came from the Red Sox. The Sox signed Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez in quick succession. They then turned to pitching and signed Wade Miley, Rick Porcello and Justin Masterson. The Red Sox are undoubtedly stuffed to the gills with talent, but will it work? Questions are always raised about Sandoval's weight and Ramirez' attitude. Boston may be in the position of having acquired so much talent, that there aren't enough places in the lineup for all of them to be used effectively. With a locker room that many are already wondering if it can gel and work together, this could be a recipe for disaster. Or a dominant team. They'll be the most interesting team to watch in my opinion.
Well, it's been right at a decade since the Marlins boug...won...their last Championship, so it must be time to open the checkbooks for a season again. The Marlins signed Giancarlo Stanton to an absolutely astronomical deal to start their off season. They continued their spending by acquiring lead off man Dee Gordon and pitchers Mat Latos and Dan Haren. The NL East is possibly the weakest division in baseball right now, so the Marlins stand a good chance of taking it this year.
I'll lump the Tigers and the Padres together here as they both made similar moves. Each team went for quality over quantity. The Tigers brought in slugger Yoenis Cespedes and the Padres snagged Matt Kemp. With Cespedes being 29 and Kemp 30, both squads have the opportunity to get several high production years out of these guys.
And then there are the Oakland Athletics. Billy Beane has made a name for himself, and not just inside the world of baseball, with his unorthodox style. This offseason, he's really got people scratching their heads. The A's have given up Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss and Jeff Samardzija. Add to that the exit of free agents like Lester, Hammel, Jed Lowrie, Alberto Callaspo, Luke Gregerson and Jonny Gomes and, well, it looks like a disaster. The A's have acquired a boatload of younger talent (9 players between the ages of 18-26), as well as Billy Butler from the Royals. Whether or not Beane has lost his mind or is a genius will be one of the top stories of the next couple years.
There are lots of free agents floating around out there that could make a huge impact, including James Shields, Melky Cabrera, Chase Headley, Jake Peavey, Edinson Volquez, Colby Rasmus, Kyle Kendrick, Francisco Rodriguez, Alex Rios, Jonny Gomes, Stephen Drew, Rickie Weeks and Nick Hundley. But one name is overshadowing them all, Max Scherzer. The 2013 AL Cy Young winner, in the past two years for the Tigers, has gone 39-8 with a 3.02 earned run average and tossed 434 2/3 innings. Those are incredible numbers, especially in the AL. Lester's deal with the Cubs was for 6 years and $155mil. I would expect Scherzer's ultimate deal to top that. Some rumors point to Scherzer's agent Scott Boras taking aim at landing the biggest deal ever inked for a pitcher. Clayton Kershaw currently holds that mark with a 7 year, $215mil deal. Nobody has any clue where Scherzer is going to land at the moment.
There are many many many other trades and signings that have taken place, but these were the stories that seem to be heading up most of the offseason talk so far. If you're interested in every transaction made by clubs, from acquisitions to assignments to coaching moves, here you go: MLB Transactions
As the offseason goes on, I'll try to make sure that I hit each MLB team at least once. Hope you folks enjoyed a little baseball talk during the dead period (which certainly hasn't been dead). If CBD approves and we don't get smacked by Ace or a Cob, I'll catch up with you guys a few more times over the next few months.
The lake to the North is the Sea of Galilee, and the larger one to the South is the Dead Sea. I would guess that the blue and green areas to the South of the Dead Sea are salt ponds, but that is a WAG.
The extent of the agricultural development in what used to be arid land -- much of it desert -- is clear. Israel's agronomist's have pushed the envelope of water use to an incredible extent, and their agricultural technology is a world leader. Israel is a major exporter of produce, although the percentage of GDP has fallen because of the rise in other areas (technology is huge, and growing).
Here's something that has been bouncing around the brain box lately. Three things actually, all of which have to do with race and racism. Lets take them one at a time.
By the strictest definition, everybody is racist, we can't help it
Human beings have two inherent qualities that quite impossible to ever eliminate "racism" entirely. Number one, we're tribal by nature. This is hard wired into our DNA, either by our creator or as a survival mechanism we inherited from our ancestors as we evolved. Why doesn't matter, but humans see things through the lens of "us" and "them" (I'm going to forgo quotes from here on out. Pixy doesn't like them and it's a pain to remove black diamonds). Us can be anything, it's an integral part of our self identity; my tribe, my family, my sports team, my nation, my club, my religion, my race, etc... Them is anyone who doesn't fit into whatever category is of paramount importance at the moment. There are various levels of usness and themness, and individual may be Them one second and Us the next. "That Johnson boy is a neighbor, but how dare he try to kiss my daughter, he's not one of us, I'll kill him!" * Barbarians attack * "Look out Johnson boy!" * Shoots barbarian about to impale JB on his spear * "Are you OK JB? Good, take this pistol and defend the house, I'm going after those sons of bitches." Us and Them is fluid and depends on context, but human beings categorize other humans without thought, slotting them into various Uses and Thems. We could no more stop it than we could breath water (waterbreathers. Ugh, I hate THEM).
The second thing working against us is that our primarily sense for experiencing the world is sight. We are visual creatures. In the context of racism based upon skin tone, combined with our automatic sorting of people into us and them, this is a double whammy. Color is, after simple light and dark (which makes vision possible in the first place), the first thing we notice. When the thing we notice is another person, as our subconscious mind starts it's us and them sort, color is going to have an outsized prominence in the equation.
So there you have it. Humans are physiologically hard wired to be, if not racist, at least race conscious. Does that mean we're doomed to living in a world that's always at least a little racist? Probably (the one scenario that I can think of that might change this is a species wide extinction level event, like an invasion by hostile aliens that forces humans to adopt an Us that means "human"). A bigger question is, does it matter? Maybe not.
We can help how we incorporate our inherent racism into our lives
As we've established, human beings are inherently racially conscious. I would argue that this isn't a positive trait. So what? Humans are inherently selfish, violent and mean as well. Those aren't positive traits either. What's important is how we act.
Don't tell the left, but you can't change people into something else. There is no New Soviet Man. All we have to work with is this flawed mortal clay. Here's where civilization comes into the picture. The purpose of civilization is to curb our baser human tendencies into something that's conducive to a functioning group of humans. People who can't control their violent tendencies are quarantined (jail) or eliminated. People who can't control their selfish nature are shunned. Mean people may be one or the other, depending on the circumstances. Why should racism be any different?
It's not, and nobody on the right that I've ever met thinks it is. Most of us realize that the United States today is a remarkably non-racist country, no matter what the MSM tries to tell you. We have succeeded in eliminating racism to a degree that I would argue hasn't been seen in the history of man. Institutional racism is dead. Societal racism is shunned to the point that it's taboo on par with incest. Individual racism? Well, it exists, but it's revealed in a very circumspect manner.
Personal anecdote.
I was getting my hair cut in the local barbershop one day. I had just moved to the neighborhood, and my car had been broken into and the stereo stolen. I mentioned it to the barber (we're both white), and he said "It was probably some damn black kid who came up here from the city on the #3 (bus)". I didn't say anything, but I said to myself "This guy is a racist" and from then forward I tried to patronize other barbers in the shop. Then one day I saw something interesting. I was getting my hair cut by a different barber when a black woman came in with a couple of rowdy kids in tow. Here was a stereotype just made for disdain for a racist. She was fat, her kids were urban and belligerent, they were obviously lower class urban, likely from different fathers (there were three kids and their skin tone varied a lot. I know that doesn't mean anything, but that's my observation, my filtering of Us and Them). What did the "racist" barber do? He greeted her professionally with a smile, bantered a bit, took the kids one at a time into his chair and gave them excellent haircuts. He thanked them for coming in, and asked them to come back again soon, even when they didn't tip. (I made an excuse to hang out just to see how it all played out).
Well. Here's a conundrum. A man I had tagged as racist because of his statement had just acted in a decidedly non-racist fashion. He revealed his racist thoughts to me because he tagged me as part of his Us, but then when a time came where he might act upon those thoughts, he didn't. He didn't treat his customers as Them.
Honestly, what more can society ask? Think or believe what you will. Say what you want (within limits). How you act....that's where the rubber meets the road. You could be as racist at Woodrow Wilson, but if it doesn't affect how you treat people, so what? To my mind, and I think to most conservatives, that's the reality of racism.
How does this apply to real life today?
Lets just review for a minute. Racism is a universal human trait. It is also nearly universally condemned by society. These two forces are in opposition to each other. Because of that, an accusation of racism is a powerful weapon. It's also a weapon that is only effective against people who recognize that racism is bad and want to be non-racist. Think about it. Accuse the grand Keegle (or Klaven or Klegel or Klown, whatever he calls himself) of the KKK of racism. He'll look at you like you're nuts. "Of course I am, do you see the robe? Do you see the hood?". He'll then give you chapter and verse why he thinks racism is good. Dig up Adolf Hitler, reanimate him and mention that you have some concerns about the way he treats Jews. He'll tell you Duh, I wrote a whole book about it. ACTUAL RACISTS ARE PROUD OF BEING RACIST. You and I? That's a different story.
Suppose someone accused you of rape. You know rape is a thing, a vile thing, and you've just been accused of doing it. You're going to defend yourself. Same thing with murder. Same thing with racism. You instinctively react in defensive mode, and by doing so you give the accusation a validity that it doesn't deserve. The focus shifts from the facts to your denial.
That's the nub of it. Accusations of racism in America today are almost always attempts to shut down an honest discussion of the facts. Zimmerman wasn't attacked by Martin, he was a racist. Brown didn't attack Wilson, Wilson killed Brown because he is a racist. Antonio Martin didn't point a Hi-Point 9MM at a cop and get killed for his trouble, it's racism. And so on, and so on, and so on.
It's not going to stop. As we've seen, racism is inherent in all of us, it's evil, and no matter how hard we try as a society and a people to suppress it, when something happens that can even remotely be classified as racist, no matter the facts, it's going to be framed that way. Why? Because it puts non-racists on the defensive and defangs their arguments.
It's damn brilliant. Every single one of you reading this is going to have to pee in the next 24 hours. If I can somehow convince you that you need to apologize for peeing, why, I've got a lot of power over you, don't I?
Most conservatives are concerned with how an individual acts. Think what you want, I don't care, I care what you do. Liberals care about how one thinks and feels. You say welfare state has destroyed the black family? Who cares, I support it because it makes me feel good about myself. I'm doing good! Look at me everyone, I'm good!
"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." Once again Kipling nails it.
Oh, and that racist can pictured at the top? Here's the other side of it.
Now, is that can racist, or inclusive? I dunno, you tell me.
ATF's internal Public Affairs Talking Points show the agency was using Fast and Furious to help justify new gun control regulations–without telling the public that ATF was actually facilitating the delivery of weapons to Mexican drug cartels.
The talking points (p. 15) state:
"These cases demonstrate the ongoing trafficking of firearms by Mexican DTO's and other associated groups operating in Arizona and the need for reporting of multiple sales for certain types of rifles in order to ferret out those intent on providing firearms to these criminal groups."
Spider Dress
Robotic spider dress keeps creeps at bay. Nah. It needs some weaponry to keep creeps at bay like a tazer, some pepper spray, some kind of shoulder mounted cannon like the one Predator had.
Friends and family said the 40-year-old Ramos, who was married with two sons, was a longstanding, deeply committed member of the Christ Tabernacle Church where he will be remembered. He served as an usher and was part of the church's marriage and life group ministries.
The families of the two officers have received an outpouring of public support in the days since the assassination.
JetBlue airlines has offered free flights for police departments around the country who would like to attend the funeral for the two officers. An airline official told CNN that about 670 officers booked seats.
"We're honored to do what we can to support the communities we serve, and our team has made flights available to law enforcement agencies across our route network who wish to send representatives to New York to support their brethren," JetBlue said in a statement.
The airline has has also offered to arrange to fly in Liu's relatives from China.
Meanwhile, the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation has begun to raise $800,000 they say is needed to pay off the mortgages of the slain officers. Frank Siller, the chairman of the foundation, said at press conference Friday that he'd like to complete the fundraising by the end of the year to give the families a sense of "peace and comfort."
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani also announced Friday that he had contributed $20,000 to the fund and called on others to give.
There is a game. The Scarlet Knights are playing for honor today. Honor and their 7-5 record. They are also up 20-0 in the second.
North Carolina's record is worse. UT's is worse than both and they managed a bowl game too. Against Arkansas, the former red-headed stepchild of the SWC.
At 4:30 EST these two powerhouses will battle. Scarlet Knights and Tarheels. For some reason they are playing in Detroit. It's not the old banks of Raritan but at least Raritan doesn't catch fire.
Only chess nerds will appreciate this, but here goes: last summer, my daughter was antique shopping found a set of small Drueke chess pieces (2.5" King) in a wooden box with a sliding top. Her SIL noticed it first, but didn't think they were of any value, because they were only plastic pieces. Not an unreasonable assumption, but, in this case, simply wrong. Muse Daughter, who plays chess and who has seen similar Drueke sets go on eBay for $80 and more, immediately snapped it up and gladly paid the $20 asking price. She thought the pieces-in-box would make the perfect Christmas gift for her dear old dad who always has been devilishly hard to shop for, and she was right. I don't think the wooden box is a Drueke product, but I don't care, it's very nice. A very lovely and thoughtful gift from my dear daughter.
Bonus: Here's a another entry from the young woman I linked to the other day. She really does not like Al Sharpton very much. Warning for NSFW language:
By now most of us are surrounded by the remnants of our Christmas (and Hanukkah) celebrations. Here at Casa Y-not we are having our Christmas dinner later today, but I imagine most of you are stuffed to the gills from yesterday's festivities.
Pants off, don't toot!
Next week many of us will be making New Year's resolutions (which inevitably leads us to reflect on what may not have gone so well this year), but I thought today we could share what went right in 2014.
Each year for the past thirty years I am grateful that I married Mr. Y-not, who is truly my better half. But this year family circumstances have also made me keenly aware of how lucky I was to have a mom and dad who raised me with love and wisdom. Mom went to Heaven many years ago, but I still have my dad. This past year I have made sure that each and every time we talk, I tell him that I love him and I thank him for all he and my mom did for me.
Onlookers at a train station in northern India watched in awe as a monkey came to the rescue of an injured friend - resuscitating another monkey that had been electrocuted and knocked unconscious.
The injured monkey had fallen between the tracks, apparently after touching high-tension wires at the train station in the north Indian city of Kanpur.
His companion came to the rescue and was captured on camera lifting the friend's motionless body, shaking it, dipping it into a mud puddle and biting its head and skin - working until the hurt monkey regained consciousness.
Mr Pierce then granted Monis and Droudis bail on the grounds that the case against them was "weak".
"Are they a threat to other people? No they are not. If there was a threat it was to this woman who was murdered," Mr Pierce said.
-- Australian Magistrate William Pierce explaining why he he was granting bail to Sydney gunman, Man Monis, last year after he was charged with killing his ex-wife.
These stories about the killings of African-American men by police officers (or by a "neighborhood watch captain," in Trayvon Martin's case) are all what my long-time radio and podcast partner Brian Ward calls "stories of choice." They are plucked from a nearly endless supply of sad events that occur daily in a nation of 315 million, and are promoted because they further a political narrative. An unholy alliance of activists and newspaper reporters and editors tries to distort our perception of reality by giving undue emphasis to them. Then, of course, reality begins to catch up with perception, and we have riots, murders of police officers, and so on. But understand that the decision to promote these stories, in preference to others that are equally or more newsworthy, is a choice that is consciously made by people with a political agenda.
Mirim University produces most of the hackers that get placed in Bureau 121. It's a highly competitive program, with each class accepting only about 100 students out of 5,000 applicants. They take six 90-minute classes every day, learning different coding languages and operating systems, from C to Linux. Jang says a lot of time was spent dissecting Microsoft programs, like the Windows operating system, and how to attack the overall computer IT systems of enemy countries like the US or South Korea.
But the core principle is to develop its own hacking programs and computer viruses without having to rely on programs already built in the outside world. Jang says he believes North Korean hackers are as good as the top programmers at Google or CIA, if not already better. "Especially in terms of coding, I'm confident they're better because they've invested in it for so long," he says.
China's manufacturing industry continues booming, which has led to the the town of Yiwu (a city of about 1.2m people in central Zhejiang province) being christened "China's Christmas village." The town has become the home of 600 factories that collectively churn out over 60% of all the world's Christmas decorations and accessories. The "elves" that staff these factories are mainly migrant labourers, working 12 hours a day for a maximum of £200 to £300 a month - and it turns out that all of them are not even entirely sure what Christmas is. Nevertheless, there are corridors lined with nothing but tinsel, streets throbbing with competing LED light shows, stockings of every size, plastic Christmas trees in blue and yellow and fluorescent pink, plastic pine cones in gold and silver. The complex of Yiwu International Trade Market was declared by the United Nations to be the "largest small commodity wholesale market in the world" and the scale of the operation necessitates a kind of urban plan, with this festival of commerce organised into five different districts, of which District Two is solely dedicated for Christmas stuff.
Tonight's post brought to you by the greatest gift ever:
Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips plus $1 for S&H to maetenloch at gmail. Otherwise send your scraps to BizarroAce. Do not taunt happy-fun ball.
This year, we have cured our own ham, and by the time you are reading this, it has found its way into the smoker for the first 3 hours of today's voyage.
With luck, most of the horde won't read this, and are instead doing the important work of properly celebrating Christmas.
It took me a terribly long time to find love for this holiday for reasons far too personal and, frankly, too boring to relate. Thanks mostly to my wife, I came around.
And this year I have been absolutely exhilarated at the prospect of this day, this first Christmas with our daughter.
Originally performed in 2011 to raise money for the victims of the 2010 tsunami it's 17 minutes of sublime beauty and joy on this Earth. Sadly the original HD video posted several years ago seems to have been taken down.
A couple of years ago a neighbor of mine tracked down on Ebay and paid a lot of $$$ for the same model aluminum Christmas tree that his parents had when he was a kid.
Amy Harder: Oil and Gas Regulatory Push Coming from Obama Administration "The coming rules—at least nine in total—would include the first-ever federal standards addressing methane emissions, stricter controls on hydraulic fracturing, drilling requirements in the Arctic, new rules governing oil shipped by trains and tougher standards on offshore drilling technology." [rdbrewer]
2014 Man of the Year: Dakota Meyer "Recently Meyer has spent his time trolling Islamic State fighters after reports surfaced that the Islamic terrorists may be targeting U.S. military members through social media." He invited them to come over and join his book club. [rdbrewer]
Sonny Bunch: Garry Trudeau, Call Your Office "I realize that Doonesbury is nothing more than liberal pap designed to make Baby Boomers feel good about themselves—yes, yes, Garry Trudeau, Republicans are squares and warmongers, we get it...." [rdbrewer]
Victor Davis Hanson: Crime as Politics "The chief of police, without compelling evidence, and without explaining why a secular medical building was also trashed in the spree, rushed to hold a press conference. He declared the broken window and moderate trashing of the center’s interior, not just a 'hate crime,' but in fact a 'brazen hate crime.' ¶ What next followed was Fresno’s comic version of what now is normal race and gender news. Almost immediately it was learned that there was a video of the suspected perpetrator in mediis rebus. Mr. Asif Mohammad Khan was a Muslim...." Via @EdDriscoll. [rdbrewer]
NYT: The Slow Death of ‘Do Not Track’ "If regulators go along, the rules would allow the largest Internet giants to continue scooping up data about users on their own sites and on other sites that include their plug-ins, such as Facebook’s 'Like' button or an embedded YouTube video. This giant loophole would make 'Do Not Track' meaningless...." I have an idea: Forget about what the bigs want; instead, make it a felony to collect browsing information from consumers who have chosen "Do Not Track." [rdbrewer]
The Stupid Club Expands
The Euro may not be the unalloyed good thing that it was supposed to be...[CBD]
Another "Good Kid" inexplicably does a bad thing. Fatal Mistake: People at home had guns as well. "Good Kid." You keep using that phrase. I do not think it means what you think it means. [krak/t]
Sorolla, "Bathtime, Valencia" a/k/a "Zombie Kid at the Beach" (1908)
Politico: OBAMA IS BACK!!! Ace has been joking about this for a while now, but it looks like Politico really is pushing an "Obama is back!" meme. [rdbrewer]
NSA Forced to Spell Out Violations After Suit "In another instance, an analyst in late 2011 'reported that, during the past two or three years, she had searched her spouse’s personal telephone directory....'" [rdbrewer]
EnidNews: Oklahoma earthquakes: USGS continues to look at increase Via Drudge. Look at the chart. People want to attribute the increase to the disposal of wastewater in injection wells, something that has been going on for decades, not just the last couple of years. Also, the quakes are two to four miles down. No one drills that deep. So, the theory sounds implausible. (It's a magma plume!) [rdbrewer]
Joseph Curl: At Christmastime, George W. Bush was Santa, Obama is Scrooge Bush never left D.C. before Christmas. He did that so that the hundreds of people involved when he traveled could be home with their families. Obama doesn't think about things like that. It takes a certain amount of mental horsepower to color within the lines, whether they're legal, traditional, ethical, or lines that simply represent the bounds of decent behavior. Obama can't do that. He does what he wants with little or no regard for others. [rdbrewer]
Why Does Nobody Want To Play With Turkey?
"It became the first member state that had military exercises with the Syrian army and the Chinese Air Force; awarded a NATO-sensitive air defense contract to a Chinese company; supported jihadists in Syria and the Muslim Brotherhood elsewhere in the Middle East; allied with what NATO nations view as a terrorist organization (Hamas)..." [CBD]