In the last ten thousand years - an instant in our long history - we've abandoned the nomadic life. We've domesticated the plants and animals. Why chase the food when you can make it come to you?For all its material advantages, the sedentary life has left us edgy, unfulfilled. Even after 400 generations in villages and cities, we haven't forgotten. The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood. We invest far-off places with a certain romance. This appeal, I suspect, has been meticulously crafted by natural selection as an essential element in our survival. Long summers, mild winters, rich harvests, plentiful game - none of them lasts forever. It is beyond our powers to predict the future. Catastrophic events have a way of sneaking up on us, of catching us unaware. Your own life, or your band's, or even your species' might be owed to a restless few-drawn, by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds.
Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, spoke for wanderers in all epochs and meridians: "I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas..."
Maybe it's a little early. Maybe the time is not quite yet. But those other worlds - promising untold opportunities - beckon. Silently, they orbit the Sun, waiting.
Minutes state: 'As far as the crimes in Cologne were concerned, he [Timmermans] said that these were a matter of public order and were not related to the refugee crisis.'
They also suggest officials want 'the unconditional rejection of false associations between certain criminal acts, such as the attacks on women in Cologne on New Year's Eve, and the mass influx of refugees'.
But the officials simultaneously do not want to 'downplay' the problems.
No doubt that they're part of some unsavory group but this is exactly what you get when political leaders abdicate their most basic responsibility: protecting the people they claim to represent. Based on the paths of other countries if these legitimate safety concerns are left unaddressed, you will eventually start seeing the appearance of death squads either with the tacit approval of local police or drawn from the police themselves. Note that this is all foreseeable. And avoidable.
Renaissance thinkers blended Classical ideas with Christian thinking: man could be seen not as just a fallen creature in a vale of tears but as the foremost of God's creations, whose good in this life was important to the Almighty.
Art helps make these otherwise high-minded notions into something publicly accessible. When the Florentines put Michelangelo's monumental, nude David in the center of their city in 1504, it said something important in a way that even an illiterate manual laborer could understand. Later, the Florentine sculptor would design the buildings of the modern Capitoline to house a collection that Pope Sixtus IV had donated to the people of Rome;in 1734, Pope Clementine XII would declare the Capitoline open to the general populace, making it the world's first public art museum.
Humanism, moderation, an appreciation for our common humanity, and the humane treatment of even those we disagree with on matters of the highest import-so much of what separates us from Iran's brutal regime is on display to anyone walking through the Capitoline museum.
Note that as a married man of nearly 50 years and a former member of the military Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is no doubt quite familiar with the naked female and male forms.
It wasn't as bad as he says. His family managed to send him to the University of Chicago. Despite a prestigious degree, however, Sanders failed to earn a living, even as an adult. It took him 40 years to collect his first steady paycheck - and it was a government check.
"I never had any money my entire life," Sanders told Vermont public TV in 1985, after settling into his first real job as mayor of Burlington. . . .
Sanders took his first bride to live in a maple sugar shack with a dirt floor, and she soon left him. Penniless, he went on unemployment. Then he had a child out of wedlock. Desperate, he tried carpentry but could barely sink a nail. "He was a shi**y carpenter," a friend told Politico Magazine. "His carpentry was not going to support him, and didn't."
Then he tried his hand freelancing for leftist rags, writing about "masturbation and rape" and other crudities for $50 a story. He drove around in a rusted-out, Bondo-covered VW bug with no working windshield wipers. Friends said he was "always poor" and his "electricity was turned off a lot." They described him as a slob who kept a messy apartment - and this is what his friends had to say about him.
The only thing he was good at was talking...non-stop...about socialism and how the rich were ripping everybody off. "The whole quality of life in America is based on greed," the bitter layabout said. "I believe in the redistribution of wealth in this nation."
Men will allowed to compete in women's events as long as they regard themselves as women and their testosterone levels have been in the female range for a year. No surgery is required.
Baltimore Ravens player John Urschel may have to juggle his spring training schedule a bit to fit into MIT's class schedule.
The 6'3", 305-pound offensive lineman will begin a PhD in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year. The Hulk-like math geek, who graduated from Penn State with a 4.0 grade point average, will study spectral graph theory, numerical linear algebra, and machine learning.
...In 2015, Urschel played in the NFL playoffs for the Ravens while simultaneously (pdf) working on a paper on graph eigenfunctions. (What have you done lately?) The paper, entitled, "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fielder Vector of Graph Laplacians," is available online.
Here Urschel explains why he plays professional football when he regards himself as a mathematician:
"What my mother and a great majority of my friends, family, and fellow mathematicians don't understand is that I'm not playing for the money," he wrote. "I'm not playing for some social status associated with being an elite athlete."
"I play because I love the game. I love hitting people."
And based on the pictures not the good Real Doll kind either. I've got to believe this is either a joke or corporate social pressure for the single men to get married.
Food Thread: Fermentation; It's What All The Cool Kids Are Doing [CBD]
—Open Blogger
Yeah....I got nothing.
This is a little experiment I tried. My standard pizza dough recipe with an 18 hour, 57° rise. I made one, and it was quite good, but then put the rest of the dough into the refrigerator for six more days. Why? I have no idea. Maybe because I am reading a book called Proof: The Science of Booze, which discusses in great detail the science of fermentation.
Anyway, after that long, cold fermentation, when I opened the container i got the expected whiff of sourdough, but also an interesting aroma of booze and maybe some other things....the byproducts of fermentation (besides CO2 and alcohol) that add complexity to whatever happens to be fermenting; booze, bread, salami, etc.
If you look carefully at the photo, you can see some vapor that has condensed on the container and surface of the dough. That's sort of a pain when making pizza, but the dough behaved really well, with nice loft and a great tangy flavor.
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[Taken today, and I was supposed to be at that table, but life sucks sometimes]
The "Pub Roast" has been an English tradition for hundreds of years. It's really just an excuse to meet your friends on Sunday afternoon and eat traditional English fare. Whatever you may think of English cooking, if there is a chance to get Yorkshire Pudding, I'm going to grab it.
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No food is healthy. Not even kale. Not a bad title, and what's even more impressive is that it is a Washington Post article! The writer occasionally veers off into what one would expect from the WashPo, but the premise is sound.
I submit to you that our beloved kale salads are not "healthy." And we are confusing ourselves by believing that they are. They are not healthy; they are nutritious. They may be delicious when prepared well, and the kale itself, while in the ground, may have been a healthy crop. But the kale on your plate is not healthy, and to describe it as such obscures what is most important about that kale salad: that it's packed with nutrients your body needs. But this is not strictly about nomenclature. If all you ate was kale, you would become sick. Nomenclature rather shows us where to begin.
This is important stuff. We are being played like pinballs by the media and the government. Just follow "Dildo's Tips For What Diet Is Best For You."
Eat food you enjoy.
Eat lots of different foods.
Don't eat too much of anything.
Don't listen to idiots who write tips for what diet is best for you.
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Here's a recipe from a Moronette whose name will remain in the mists of internet anonymity, and because I deleted the e-mail with her nic in it. She swears by the recipe. I have to admit that I was taken aback by the can of mushroom soup, but really, it's the same mushrooms I would be buying and cleaning and chopping and cooking and.....
Yeah....use the damned can.
Pot Roast
• 1 (3 to 4 lb.) boneless chuck roast
• 1 ½ teaspoons House Seasoning*
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• ½ small onion, wedged
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 (10 ¾ ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 can beef broth
• 5 potatoes, peeled & quartered
• 4 carrots, peeled & cut into 2” lengths
• 2 onions, wedged
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• ¼ cup water
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Add the House Seasoning, salt and pepper to a small bowl. Rub seasoning into the roast on all sides. Heat oil in a Dutch oven and brown the roast, searing it on all sides. Remove meat, and add onion and garlic to Dutch oven. Sauté for 1 to 2 minutes to absorb leftover roast juice. Place meat back into Dutch oven along with 2 bay leaves.
Combine the mushroom soup and Worcestershire sauce and pour over the roast. Add the beef broth. Cover and bake for 2 hours. Add potatoes, carrots and onions. Cover and bake for another 1 to1 ½ hours or until meat and vegetables are tender.
Remove meat and vegetables and keep warm. Discard the bay leaves. Put Dutch oven over a medium heat and add cornstarch/water mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Season to taste. Pour gravy through mesh strainer to remove any lumps.
*House Seasoning: 4 parts salt, 1 part pepper, 1 part garlic powder.
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And last but not least..... Niedermeyer's Dead Horse sent me this photo. I have no idea what to make of it, except that it is so ridiculous I am going to try it.
An Interesting Idea: Free Tuition At Elite Schools, Paid By Their Massive Endowments (CBD)
—Open Blogger
Meritocracy: Will Harvard Become Free and Fair? is an interesting article with some even more interesting links. My favorite is to another article by the author, ""Paying Tuition to a Giant Hedge Fund," which is exactly what paying Harvard tuition is!
As so many of us know, higher education has become something rather different than what it was intended to be. Clearly it is a moneymaker, non-profit status be damned. And of course the indoctrination of our youth is funded by this seemingly unending and ever expanding source of money.
And for an interesting take on the current fascist impulse of feminism and the SJWs, as manifested on campus, here is Glenn Reynolds: Turning tide in war on college men?
Sunday Morning Book Thread 01-31-2016: Around the Edges of the Gospel [OregonMuse]
—Open Blogger
Cincinnati Public Library, c. 1927
Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread. The Sunday Morning Book Thread is the only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. And when I type up the book thread, my pinkies remain elevated the whole time, that's how classy it is. And don't forget your pants!
So in a thread earlier this week, the landlord opined that he thought the upcoming movie Risen might be a clever bit of filmmaking:
The trick here is that the movie actually begins (I imagine) like a pretty secular affair -- we've got a political problem with this uprising of Jews and these silly claims, so we're sending in a detective to find the body.
I don't think, in this movie, the centurion is going to find the body.
So what begins as a secular detective mystery (with odd historical trappings) winds up as a conversion piece.
I grew up Roman Catholic, went to Catholic primary school for 8 years, and am old enough to have witnessed the "modernization" of the RCC that happened as a result of Vatican II. I wasn't fooled one bit. Instead of an old priest wearing a cassock, which identified him as obviously a priest, these youngish guys with long hair and guitars kept showing up at school and church. But I remember thinking, "Yeah, this is just the same old boring religion that the nuns have been trying to beat into me for years, only it's now some clown pretending to be a hippie. Screw you." That was my attitude. I hated both, but if I had to have one or the other, I think that even back then I would have chosen the old one.
So ace is saying that Risen is kind of like that. Although it wouldn't be fair to call it "bait and switch" -- if the trailer doesn't make it completely obvious what you're getting, note that one of the production companies is a division of Sony called AffirmFilms which is also responsible for The Remaining ("After the Rapture, There Are Fates Worse Than Death") and Miracles From Heaven ("based on the incredible true story"). Given this, it seems unlikely that Risen is going to end with "Oh look, we found the stinking corpse. Hey everybody, it's all a big fake."
You really ought to take a look at those trailers I linked to. I don't know how they are from an artistic standpoint, but they certainly look good. Sony is obviously dropping a lot of money into them. And obviously, the suits believe these religiousChristian-themed films are going to make them a metric boatload of money.
But I'm getting off track. This is the book thread, not the movie thread. The point is, and this was pointed out in the comments, there are books which take this same approach, such Ben Hur, which is probably the most famous one, and also, The Robe:
A Roman soldier, Marcellus, wins Christ's robe as a gambling prize. He then sets forth on a quest to find the truth about the Nazarene's robe-a quest that reaches to the very roots and heart of Christianity and is set against the vividly limned background of ancient Rome. Here is a timeless story of adventure, faith, and romance, a tale of spiritual longing and ultimate redemption.
I've heard that the movie version wasn't very good. I wonder if the book is any better?
takes place shortly after Christ's death and resurrection. Basil is called to design the case which will hold the silver cup that Christ and His disciples drank from at the Last Supper, and plans to sculpt their likenesses upon it. As he seeks out these followers of Christ, he encounters grave danger.
And I can't go on without also mentioning. Dear and Glorious Physician, Taylor Caldwell's novel about St. Luke.
So there's any number of these novels written "around the edges of the Gospel", in boulder terlit hobo's apt words.
Now here's something interesting that I learned from the comments. Remember Barry Sadler, the guy who did "The Ballad of the Green Berets" ("Put silver wings on my son's chest/Make him one of America's best...")? Well, he wass an author, too. In fact, he wrote a series of books featuring the character Casca Rufio Longinus, who was a Roman soldier, stationed in Judea, and who was assigned to stab Jesus' side with his spear as He hung on the cross. For doing that that he was cursed to not die, but to roam the earth until the Second Coming. Of course this is a variation of the old Wandering Jew myth. But Casca is condemned to a soldier's life wherever he goes, and the book series has him fighting in various historical times and places such as Rome, Byzantium, Germany, France, America (Civil War), Vietnam, Japan, etc. There are a great number of these Casca novels, like over 40 of them. Sadler is credited with writing 22 of them. And then the task was handed off to various ghost writers.
I guess they're pretty pulpy. Whoever's writing them can crank them out pretty fast.
You morons may or may not have heard of Britain's Man Booker Prize. It's an "important" literary prizes that's handed out every year to the author of the novel that most greatly reinforces the liberal worldview and prejudices of Britain's literati. It's like a big, squishy group hug for progressives.
At a sold-out Guardian event on Friday night, James said publishers too often sought fiction that “panders to that archetype of the white woman, that long-suffering, astringent prose set in suburbia. You know, ‘older mother or wife sits down and thinks about her horrible life’.”
The reason for this is obvious:
Women, particularly white women, make up the vast majority of regular fiction readers, purchasing two thirds of all books sold in the UK. Almost 50% of women classify themselves as avid readers, compared to 26% of men.
Sometimes reality is just like getting smacked in the face with a dead fish, and it looks like that is what happened to James here.
Now what's also true is that white women also predominate over the higher ranks of the book publishing industry as well. This makes them effectively the gatekeepers. So what gets published in America and England is mostly decided by a relatively small contingent of upper middle class white, liberal women.
Now that's a frightening thought, isn't it?
James certainly thinks so:
“If I pandered to a cultural tone set by white women, particularly older white female critics, I would have had 10 stories published by now,” he continued. “Though we’ll never admit it, every writer of colour knows that they stand a higher chance of getting published if they write this kind of story. We just do.”
Of course, it's not just "writers of colour" who have to pander to older white female critics; EVERY WRITER WHO EVER WANTS TO BE PUBLISHED has to run that gauntlet. If James thinks he's being singled out because of the melanin content of his skin, he's deluding himself.
I see two solutions:
1.) Write whatever you want, and self publish. It's a lot easier to do this now than it used to.
2.) "Writers of colour" should pool their resources and build their own publishing houses. And don't hire any older white women as editors. That way, they can see to it that none of the diverse voices they're always telling us about remain unheard.
The problem is, these are market-oriented solutions, and James sounds like the kind of guy to whom these will never occur, and if by some fluke chance they did, he wouldn't understand them, because he doesn't understand markets
But of course, this happens in other industries. Back in 1919, D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, had grown so fed up by how the Hollywood Studios then in existence were running things that they founded their own studio, United Artists, in order to have better control their own work as well as their futures.
I think this is just another aspect of the clash between "writing as Art" vs. "writing as a 9-to-5 job". James is clearly resentful that he has to keep his audience in mind as he writes. But if the stories he wants to write are stories no one else wants to read, maybe he should just do something else with his life.
Or, just give it up and start writing to suit the sensibilities of neurotic, liberal, white women. There are worse ways to make a living.
The Great Courses
The Great Courses is an outfit that sells educational videos (and audio CDs) of all sorts.
There is a yuuge selection of topics to be explored in the Literature and Language section, among them:
Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques
The Art of Storytelling: From Parents to Professionals
The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins
Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis
How to Read and Understand Shakespeare
Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition
Great American Bestsellers: The Books That Shaped America
Classics of Russian Literature
36 Books That Changed the World
Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature's Most Fantastic Works
I didn't provide links, but you can easily get to them by the main 'Literature and Language' link I provided. The courses vary in price and some of them are rather spendy (prohibitively so, at least for me). On some of them, you can save money by getting audio CDs rather than the DVD set. For some of the courses, you don't need to see the instructor, anyway. Another way you can save money is to see if your local public library has any of them. That's what moron 'Dj' did, he found a course on How to Publish Your Book. Here's the course description:
In the 24 eye-opening lectures of How to Publish Your Book, Jane Friedman, publishing industry expert and educator, provides you with sought-after secrets of the publishing process that will help you navigate this difficult progression, bypass pitfalls that many novice authors get hung up on, and improve your chances of being considered for publication. She acts as your personal guide though the entire process from finalizing your manuscript, to writing the perfect pitch, to reviewing contracts and marketing your book. She provides the candid scoop on what you need to do in order to increase your chances of being considered. The knowledge you’ll gain by having an inside expert teaching you how to position your book for publication gives you a unique advantage and drastically increases your chances of getting noticed in this increasingly competitive industry.
You can purchase downloadable audio files of these lectures for $44.95. Or, if you're lucky like Dj, you can check them out from your local library.
Free Book Sites
I found a new one the other day, or, at least one I hadn't seen before, Loyal Books. There isn't anything new here that you can't find elsewhere, but I like it because it's set up as an attractive interface so you can browse through their catalog quickly and easily. I've never much liked the Project Gutenberg site, even though it has pretty much every public domain text that's ever been digitized. I've only gone there when I knew exactly what book I was looking for. The Gutenberg interface is clunky and primitive and looks like something from 1997. The whole Gutenberg front end could use a serious makeover to bring it into the 21st century. So, as I said, I don't go there much.
But maybe you'll find Loyal Books a bit better, as I did.
Also, one of the 'ettes tipped me to Book Angel, a British site that highlights free Kindle book deals featured on amazon.co.uk, but American readers can take advantage of them, too.
What I'm Reading
I'm glad that the Android Kindle app has a function that allows you to tap on a word to see the dictionary definition pop up in a separate window. I've been using that feature a lot ever since I started reading book 1 of the Aubrey/Maturin series Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. I've had to look up words like pertinacious ("holding firmly to an opinion or a course of action."), mumchance ("silent, tongue-tied") and, because one of the main characters (Stephen Maturin) is a physician and surgeon, we get to see some antiquated medical terminology, such as "gleet" (which is kind of disgusting, so I'm not going to tell you what it is. But I will say that referring to an MSNBC news show, or indeed the MSNBC network entire, as a "gleet-fest" would not be amiss). Also, one of my favorite old-timey medical terms, laudable pus has not yet made an appearance, but perhaps it will later.
But I like these old words, they add authenticity to the story. One of my pet peeves is period fiction that sounds modern. The trick is to avoid modern speech patterns (as well as modern thinking patterns) without going down the Howard Pyle route where the text gets so overloaded with "thees" and "thous" and "ye this" and "ye that" that it just comes off sounding like really crappy Shakespeare. O'Brian manages to avoid both of these ditches to good effect. I will say, though, that it's sometimes hard to read, particularly when he's describing the shipboard operations, what sails are being furled and unfurled, and how the ship is being steered to take full advantage of whatever wind was available. There's a large and complex vocabulary used to describe all of these operations, and for a lubber like me, it all kind of blurs together into a confusing ball.
But having said all that, I must say it doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the book, and I intend to continue on with the series.
Incidentally, the movie version of Master and Commander is very different than this book. In fact, I'm tempted to say the only thing they have in common is the title. Both are good, just different products.
One more thing. Even though I knocked Howard Pyle for his crappy dialog, you should read his wiki entry I linked to. He sounds like he was an interesting guy.
Book bleg: OK, speaking of seafaring stories, I'd like to tap into the repository of HordeKnowledge™ to see if we can come up with the title of a book I read when I were a wee lad, but that is now sadly lost. The author claimed to be a 97-year-old man writing about when he first went to sea about the time of the California gold rush. He signed aboard one of the then new-fangled "clipper" ships whose hull design this book explained was such that the ship sliced through the waves rather than were carried by them, so the speeds attained were incredibly fast. So this adventure book, geared to a (male) YA audience, shows him learning the ropes (literally) of shipboard life, going south over the equator and around Cape of Good Hope Horn enroute to California, and ends up in a disaster as he has to fight his enemy while the ship is burning. One scene that has stayed with me was when the author describes being up in the rigging when the ship slices through a particularly uuuge wave which then collapses onto the ship so that the entire deck is awash, and looking down and seeing the masts sticking out of the ocean, and wondering if the ship was ever going to come back up. Powerful stuff.
The author claims the story is true, but I'm guessing it probably isn't, but so what, it's a ripping good yarn nonetheless, and it's too bad I can't remember the title or the author. I remember the book looked old, like it was printed in the 40s or 50s, or maybe even earlier. It definitely wasn't a recent book. So I'm hoping at least one of you morons knows which book I'm talking about.
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Once again, remember the the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the books, great and otherwise, that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.
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So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.
What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.
Here comes the Iowa caucuses. First and consequently most influential for no apparent reason.
Looks like after flirting with sanity, Iowa is poised to deliver Trump his first primary victory because Cruz is a Canadian hatey McHaterson or something.
I wish I could get worked up about elections. That would mean I wasn't full on pessimistic about the trajectory of our nation.
But I just can't shake the conviction that once the majority of people discover they can vote that other people's money will be transferred to them, the die is well and truly cast.
We're about to elect either a reality show barker, an out and proud Socialist, or the person who has without a shadow of a doubt broken federal laws, and goes unindicted because: Girl/Clinton/Democrat.
I'll note that an integral part of Progressive mythology is the struggle. Despite being in charge for close to a century, Progressives still think of themselves as an insurgent minority at war with their oppressive overlords. Elizabeth Warren is worth millions, yet she spends her time in the Senate ranting about the one percent. Her neighbors in the one percent cheer her on. It's false consciousness.
How about Hollywood and the White House lead by example on this pay gap BS. They won't. Just like they don't do things to lower their carbon footprint and have their bodyguards carry no guns. They just want you miserable while they live as they want.
Journalists scared to criticize Trump. If only the GOPe had learned this a long time ago. Play tough with the media and they'll "watch their words" more carefully around you. Seriously though, whether it's Trump or someone other than the "D" candidate, the MSM will not be fearful and strike often with BS reports. They are more fearful of their own masters and what will happen if they do not do their bidding.
On the Democrats' side, it's Hilary 45%, Sanders 42%. Too close to call.
However, Ann Selzer (who did the poll) says this is somewhat deceptive, and Hillary is stronger than her three point lead would suggest.
Only one in three likely Democratic voters in the survey are first-time caucus-goers, who break decidedly toward Sanders. That compares with 60 percent in the final pre-caucus survey of 2008, when a wave of young voters and new participants helped Barack Obama overpower Clinton in Iowa.
Sanders needs a surge of new voters to win, I guess.
Where will O'Malley's voters go? Looks like an even split between Sanders and Hillary.
Did anyone have a physics instructor who would climb a ladder where a pendulum with a heavy weight was secured, then allow the pendulum to swing away....and back toward him?
I have heard rumors, but nobody ever claimed to have seen it.
I hope you all survived the storm without major incident. Here at the vast half acre Y-not Estate we lost one Eastern cedar to the ice and snow. Most of our cedars did fine, however, and resisted damage from the elements as they were designed.
The golf course behind us saw quite a bit of damage, mostly to the white pines. I'm not sure how many trees were downed, but there were a lot of large branches that fell. Apparently quite a few magnolias were also damaged in our area. (Here's an article about how they fared after last year's heavy snows.)
We'll be looking to replace the Eastern cedar we lost and add to our collection of evergreens, so I've started reading up on the best varieties to choose, here and here. I even found a blogger in Kentucky who has researched the best tall trees to plant in our area.
I may be too late for this year, but I plan on learning all I can about how to ensure my trees survive the NEXT big storm, here and here.
In the meantime, my lovely cedar has been converted into bedding for the world's largest hamster!
While many members of The Horde have been having Adventures with Snow, I have been thinking about butterflies. Spring will come someday and gardening will again be possible. Our rosemary is already blooming, and the bees are out.
The Monarch Butterflies will be leaving their little Coastal California enclaves a couple of hours from us soon. February 6 is California Western Monarch Day. One of their enclaves, the little resort city of Pacific Grove, has hit the wall with regard to public pension costs. Butterflies still hang out there in winter, though. "Monarch mating season is in February around Valentine's day. The monarchs leave the California Central Coast around late February to the beginning of March."
But today, I thought I would focus on some butterflies whose caterpillars eat some of the same things people do.
Beckoning Black Swallowtail Butterflies (and some relatives)
After she moved to Kentucky, Y-not asked The Horde for information on plants that would attract butterflies to her new garden. It has been a while since we discussed butterfly gardening. Black Swallowtails, AKA Eastern Black Swallowtails, are among the easiest of the Larger-than-Painted-Lady butterflies to attract to eastern gardens. Anise Swallowtails are similarly adapted to gardens in certain parts of the west. Other swallowtails which share some host plants with these two species are mentioned below, too.
Several members of The Horde have planted Butterfly Gardens. You can check on which species of butterflies you might be able to attract to your garden by typing in your zip code here. In my case, the list seemed over-optimistic. But it is a start.
Most gardeners could grow at least one of the host plants for the caterpillars of the Black and Anise Swallowtail butterflies. Many of them are useful in the kitchen, too. As I recall, Y-not is putting off major gardening projects until a fence is finished, but maybe she could grow a host plant in a pot to attract mama butterflies. Nectar plants are more effective at attracting butterflies when planted in large swaths.
Egg-laying Black and Anise Swallowtail butterflies are attracted by carrots, parsnips, celery, caraway, dill, fennel and parsley. Related host plants found in the wild are listed here. I really like the photos at that link. This butterfly shows sexual dimorphism, with female butterflies typically displaying more blue and less yellow on open wings than males. The darker color of the female offers some protection from predators in areas where the black-and-blue Pipevine Swallowtail also flies. It is poisonous to some predators.
The Black Swallowtail is found in most of the Eastern U.S. and into Canada. It is the State Insect of Oklahoma. Relaxing videos of its lifecycle and of adults feeding on phlox at the link.
Black and Anise swallowtail caterpillars often pupate on or near the host plants. The chrysalis is suspended from a silken loop. If you find one in the fall and want it to hatch in your yard next spring, you could carefully place it in a protected outdoor location - not too warm, no artificial light or strong winter sun, so the butterfly will not emerge too early in spring. Something to remember during fall garden clean-up.
Caterpillar-Watching
I used to raise Anise Swallowtail butterflies when I lived near bluffs in Southern California where they had established a population. Watching caterpillars for a few minutes cleared my mind when life seemed too complex. They are so focused on eating. And consequently, on pooping. Not much complexity there. Watching them pupate and emerge as butterflies was also fascinating.
Like many other caterpillars in the Swallowtail family, Black and Anise Swallowtail caterpillars have stinky, soft "horns" (the osmeterium) that they can extend when alarmed. But Anise Swallowtail butterflies are nicely fragrant, like perfume, when they first emerge. At least if the caterpillars were fed on fennel. You can see a caterpillar extending its stinky osmeterium below. Do not be afraid (unless you intend to eat the caterpillar):
One Moronette raises Black Swallowtails in an actual, attractive Butterfly House. I am impressed. I raised caterpillars in a rodent carrier from a pet store, with some netting under the lid when caterpillars were tiny. Generally Anise Swallowtail cats (butterfly nut lingo there) do not stray from the host plant too much when tiny, but Gulf Fritillary caterpillars may.
Raising caterpillars indoors protects them from predators and parasitoids outdoors. Most of the time. But once I noticed that a little caterpillar was eating its brother and sisters. Some species of caterpillars are cannibalistic, but this is not typical behavior for Anise Swallowtail larvae. It then became immobile without forming a chrysalis. A tiny fly-like insect, probably a wasp, emerged from it a few days later.
In Southern California, Anise Swallowtails produce several generations a year. The name "Anise Swallowtail" came from its adaptation to fennel plants introduced by Spanish missionaries. People have a tendency to name anything that tastes like anise "anise". We have already discussed growing real anise as a garden plant. It is related to fennel, but I have not seen reference to its use as a host plant for these butterflies. Surprising.
I have never seen an Anise Swallowtail here on the Central Valley floor. They are most common near coastal bluffs, mountain canyons and foothills where they can go hilltopping to find mates. Males visit mud puddles, like many other male butterflies.
The Black Swallowtail does not need to go hilltopping in order to find a mate, so it is more common in flatland gardens than the Anise Swallowtail. But males do defend display territories in "prominent topographic locations", and engage in a "lek mating system". Adults live longer than many other butterflies, and they may mate several times.
In California, Anise Swallowtail caterpillars are most often found on naturalized fennel plants or sometimes on orange trees. Nice life cycle photos here. They also feed on introduced poison hemlock in the first part of the season. I do not recommend planting poison hemlock as a host plant.
In other parts of their range, there is only one generation year. Caterpillars feed on native plants in the carrot and parsley family.
Cow Parsnip and other wild host plants
One common host is the dramatic Cow Parsnip, Herculeum maximum, named after Hercules. Native Americans have used peeled stalks of this plant for food, but like the wilder forms of celery, its juices can produce phototoxicity. For garden use, I think it looks best as a single, bold plant or small group of plants, rather than like this:
Cow Parsnip in an Alaskan Yard
The Short-tailed Swallowtail is very similar to the male Black Swallowtail. It lives in maritime regions of Eastern Canada, feeding on wild plants in the carrot and parsley family, notably Angelica and Scotch Lovage, in addition to Cow Parsnip. This butterfly is garden-friendly, like the Black Swallowtail. A Western counterpart found less frequently in gardens is the Indra Swallowtail. There are several subspecies with strikingly different appearances, all beautiful. Common names include Short-Tailed Black, Cliff and Grand Canyon Swallowtail. Males patrol parallel to ridgetops, while Anise Swallowtails patrol at the summits.
Growing Fennel
For Black Swallowtails or Anise Swallowtails, I think bronze fennel is the best host plant for caterpillar-watching because it is see-through and its color makes the larger caterpillars stand out like striped ornaments. Their stripes can be surprisingly effective camouflage on green plants. Bronze fennel is a color variant of Common Fennel.
Bronze and Green Common Fennel
Rosalind Creasy, who wrote the book on Edible Landscaping, did a nice piece on Cooking with Fennel. She also included some history:
According to some authorities, the ancient Greeks called fennel marathron, from marainein, "to grow thin", reflecting its use in suppressing appetite. Others suggest fennel was named marathon, after a village about 25 miles from Athens where fennel grew wild. In 490 b.c., Athenians defeated the Persians at this site. Before the battle, Pheidippides, carrying a stalk of fennel, ran 120 miles in two days to recruit soldiers from Sparta; another long-distance runner took news of the victory to Athens and fell dead on arrival. Modern marathon races derive from this bit of history.
This is one tough plant in mild-winter climates. Common fennel is a major pest in some wild areas of California. Its ability to inhibit the growth of many other plants is a big part of the problem. There is now a fairly expensive campaign to eradicate it from Santa Cruz Island. Along with feral hogs. There are recipes that combine fennel with hog meat . . .
Common fennel can be grown as a perennial except where the winters are very cold and in the desert. It is useful for leaves as a summer annual in most places and as a winter annual in the desert. It is controllable in the garden, but if you live near wild land, especially on the West Coast, you should remove seed heads from your plants. Since the roots inhibit growth of some plants, do not position plants near delicate subjects in your garden. Where happy, common fennel can reach 8 feet in height. Whack it back after it flowers to avoid an ugly dormant season. Or whack it back earlier to control its height or delay flowering. Watch for (and move) caterpillars or butterfly pupae on the stems.
In Sonoma County, when Master Gardeners say "fennel" they mean Florence Fennel, the one used as a vegetable. It typically grows 1.5 to 2 feet in height. It is not invasive like common fennel. There are growing directions and foodie recipes at the link.
Florence Fennel, with its thickened stem bases, provides a more substantial crop for the kitchen than bronze fennel or common fennel if grown properly. The feathery tops of all types of fennel are used pretty much like fresh dill. The flowers are more pungent and are used mostly as a garnish. The seeds can be used either green for a burst of flavor or in the more familiar dried form.
Florence fennel is grown as an annual. It is prone to bolting in many gardens. "To perpetuate itself is the strongest urge in any plant. Taste and succulence are our priorities."
Florence Fennel
Timing seems to be important to growing fennel bulbs successfully. Florence Fennel can be grown in the winter in the desert. Day length may make a difference in other regions. The temperamental nature of Florence Fennel is a good reason to plant a named variety. For example, Zefa Fino is an open-pollinated cultivar noted for its bolt-resistance. There are also F1 hybrid cultivars.
If you are growing Florence Fennel and it looks like it is going to bolt, you might try cutting it off just above the roots (baby fennel bulbs?) and allowing it to re-grow. Even if it bolts, butterflies and caterpillars will love the flowers. And you can still use the leaves, flowers and seeds.
Whether you choose common fennel, bronze fennel or Florence fennel for your garden, it may save other plants in the carrot and parsley family from destruction, since it is more strongly attractive to mama butterflies. Just look at all those little caterpillars. Fun.
Y-not: Thanks, KT!
To close things up, I started looking for pretty pictures of ice-covered trees, which led me to this blog. The author posted some lovely photos of Niagara Falls (TYPO FIXED!) encased in snow and ice. It's hard to believe it, but it has been two years since our friend, Joffen passed away.
Let's raise a glass to him and all of our departed friends!
**UPDATE**
Commenter "Tim in Illinois" mentioned the interesting geological history of Niagara Falls. Here's a short video clip about that:
Shocking as it may seem, here is some interesting evidence that Black Lives Matter might not be the grassroots organization that they would like America to think.
And judging by the carnage in Chicago, there might be a missing comma in their name.
This may be of interest to those of you that enjoyed the Timothy Zahn Star Wars novels. This is only spoilery if you watch Star Wars Rebels, but there is a rumor that a certain Admiral will now be included into what Disney considers canon which means that this Admiral is now a player for future movies as well.
I guess all that lobbying Boeing did for the Iran deal was for naught. Tehran buys 114 Airbus planes. I found this little nugget amusing since when does this administration care about appearances?
...some speculated that the State Department had discouraged Boeing from attending to avoid the appearance that U.S. companies that supported the Iran deal were profiting from its implementation.
British gunners in WWII were able to locate and shoot down German planes at night due to significant advancements in radar technology. To help cover up their improvements on the technology, the British spread about an urban legend that said that they were able to increase the night vision of their pilots by having them consume large amounts of carrots. This propaganda campaign included stories about certain pilots like Lieutenant John "Cat Eyes" Cunningham who they said had exceptional night vision thanks to a habit of eating large amounts of carrots. This lie not only gave birth to an urban legend, but also caused many British people to start planting their own vegetable gardens, including planting and eating a large amount of carrots so that they'd be able to see better during blackouts.
I also had no idea that MI6 used semen as invisible ink which happened to be led at the time by Captain Sir Mansfield Cumming.
I really don't understand some of the cities on this 10 best cities for young entrepreneurs. Seattle? San Francisco? Cost of living and taxes would crush you.
Norwegian Woman Claims to be Trans-Species, a Cat Trapped In a Human Body
—Ace
From @rdbrewer, meow-she says meow-she is the victim of a "genetic defect" which makes meow-her a transcat.
The more civilized a society is -- or the more decadent; I am beginning to wonder if Conan of Cimmeria wasn't right that they're essentially the same -- the more time and space people have to indulge in play and fantasy.
Of course, this is, in the main, a good thing. Having to find food and water for oneself every single day might have the admirable effect of focusing one's mind on practical, tangible reality, but daydreaming, play, fantasy, storytelling, art and oral sex are nice luxuries to be able to indulge in.
Decadence is wonderful, really -- for as long you can afford it.
But, of course, when a society becomes so insulated from reality -- due to its wealth and domination over the environment -- it might lose itself dreaming.
The thing is, this can only go on for a short period, because reality will, ultimately, reimpose itself. A society that begins forgetting about the exacting rules of reality will soon lose its wealth and its soft cushions against the fundamental hardness of the world.
It is a strange thing indeed that in objectively bad economic times -- these are hard times, hustling times, scarce times -- we are simultaneously cursed with the strange dreamings of excessive wealth. I don't think that many people believed, during the Great Depression, that they were cats trapped in the bodies of humans.
I think they were more practical minded. Which is what then permitted them to rebuild and become prosperous again. And ultimately begin lapsing into dreamworlds in the seventies.
Yet here we are in objectively hard times, which should, if we are to ever scramble out of our predicament, produce hard thinking, yet we continue on this descent into indulgence and decadence.
These are hard times, but they do not produce hard thinking. They don't even produce soft thinking. They produce non-thinking. They produce psychosis.
They produce waking dreams, and not even dreams of the more interesting sort.
Where are the piles of gold we ought to be sleeping upon, if we are to dream so indulgently? We have our decadence, but where is our opulence to prop it up?
I just watched this because Literally Nothing Is Ever On TV. It's a low-budget movie from 2014 by an Italian, or French, director.
It stars Michael Douglas playing an arrogant, rich corporate douchebag. Real stretch for him. He's a big game hunter, or maybe just a big game shooter, as he has lots of expensive equipment -- a $500,000 six-wheel Humvee complete with espresso maker (!), a futuristic looking Steyr rifle -- but does not have a great deal of wilderness skills. He mostly just pays guides to get him close to big trophy animal so he can shoot it.
He pays a guide, played by a guy named Jeremy Irving, I think, to get him close to bighorn sheep in the Mojave Desert. He bribes the guy to overlook the fact that he doesn't have a permit to hunt the protected animals.
The problem comes when Douglas sees a shadow on a ridgeline and fires at it... without confirming the shadow was a bighorn sheep.
In fact, it was a human being, and he nailed him in the heart. He's dead as the desert.
At this point, Douglas attempts to further bribe the guide, but the guide isn't helping covering up a killing, even if it was an accident.
So Michael Douglas begins Plan B: He forces the guide to strip to his underwear, at gun point, and marches him through the merciless sun and 120 degree heat of the Mojave. His plan is that the guide will die a natural-appearing death, and he'll claim that the guide shot the man, then ran out into the desert in despair and eventually died of exposure, sunstroke, and thirst. With no witness to contradict him, he'll get away with it.
It's a lower-budget movie, as there are just two actors, pretty much (some brief appearances by others), and much of the time, the camera is only on one of them.
The other actor is the Mojave Desert, which puts in a damn fine performance.
After all the noise of the Marvel films, I enjoyed this quiet, taut, simple drama of one man trying to kill another man, and another man trying to survive. There's little dialogue between them, even, as there really isn't much to say past the opening: Michael Douglas just wants this guy dead. Not really a lot to discuss.
It's on demand on Starz.
Here are my ratings:
Minus 1/2 Star for No Rattlesnake Fu. Come on, a desert survival movie, and no rattlesnake? Have the guy wake up from sleeping and discover a rattlesnake has snuggled up next to him for warmth.
No wildlife at all, really -- not even the bighorn sheep. Not even the sounds of their horns clashing against each other in the distance.
Plus/Minus 0 Stars for No Real Survivalcraft. I have to tell you upfront that while you might think the premise means you'll be getting survival tactics in this movie, you don't. You don't get any of it.
There are a couple of reasons, I think. First, it's hard to stage. To introduce some cool surivalcraft fun-facts, you'd have to have the guide explaining why he was going to his shadowed catch-basin hoping for some water, and that means he'd have to have someone to talk to, like a friend he's explaining things to.
Well, he doesn't. The whole point of this movie is a mano-a-mano duel in perfect isolation from mankind.
Alternately, you could have a voice-over, but that wouldn't work at all: The whole tone of this movie is supposed to be taught, panicky survival, and if you have the guy narrating coolly -- assumedly later, after he's already survived and extracted himself from the situation -- would demolish the tension.
I thought maybe he could steal a pocket recorder, in order to get the facts of the killing on tape in case of his death, and then he could say into that recorder "I'm going to this ridge of rocks, because the base of the rocks are in shadow so there might be unevapoarted water there," or whatever.
But even that really wouldn't work, because what they're going for is the idea that this guy is just in a terrible situation, and is just scrambling for his life, and if he is sitting there reading out these clever, highly-skilled strategems, it makes him seem more competent and on top of things than the movie wants him to be
So I give this neither a deduction nor a plus -- It's a choice the movie made, and a defensible one. But I feel like I have to point it out, because the first thing anyone would think (as I thought) was "Wow, cool, now we're going to see some neat survivalcraft."
Plus 1/2 Star for No Schlongs. Even though Douglas strips the guy, he lets him keep his jockey shorts, so we don't see any schlong bouncing around. And if that sounds bad to you womenfolk -- we also don't see sun-blistered schlong, which wouldn't be too cool.
Minus 1/2 Star for Suboptimal Climax. I think this sort of movie has to end in the classic way. I think at some point, the victim has to gain the upper hand, then turn the tables -- if only partially -- so that now the hunter becomes the hunted.
You want the villain not just to be defeated, but to know he's been defeated, and to understand the moral reasons for his defeat -- his hubris, his belief that he was a master of the situation, his arrogance that he was so much more capable than his would-be victim he could afford to get cute.
You want the villain, in other words, to know what a Total Asshole he was before he gets his.
So what I was expecting was a turning of the tables, and, say, 10-15 minutes of the guide now hunting Douglas.
I didn't get that. The climax is decent -- it's not bad -- but it happens pretty abruptly. It didn't really feel to me as if it built to that climax, that the movie was signaling "This is it, this is the end." The end just came.
Also, not to give away spoilers, but the Mojave Desert is a co-star in the movie. The climax should happen there -- all of it. I don't think this movie ever should have left the desert. The desert was just to intrinsic to the whole set up.
It would be like ending Die Hard in someplace other than the Nakatomi Tower.
Overall, I liked this movie, so I'll add up those pluses and minuses and still give it three stars. It's a very simple, very straightforward thriller with good scenery.
I like when filmmakers have the confidence that they don't have to make everything loud and fast moving and filled with CGI.
And I always say this: If, being a dramatist, you don't think that the situation of one man trying to kill another is inherently full of dramatic potential, and that you need to lard that scenario up with special effects and Funny Wisecracks and constant thumping Action Music, you need to get out of the business.
One man trying to murder another is not the highest form of drama, but it is certainly sufficient for a good drama. These filmmakers know that, and they don't try to gild the lily.
If you liked Tuco tortuing Blondie in the desert in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and thought, 'Wow! They should make a whole movie just out of that!," well, this is for you.
Just an unexpectedly competent movie I'd never before heard of and had no expectations of. Three stars might be generous, but I guess I kind of like that they just didn't have a whole lot of mistakes and misfires in the movie.
PS: Yes, it's based on the Young Adult novel "Deathwatch."
I would have mentioned that originally, but I had no idea anyone else had ever heard of the novel, so I didn't see the point of noting it. But commetners immediately said "Sounds like Deathwatch," so yeah, it is that.
Oh, and it's apparently a remake of the 1974 film "Savages," where Andy Griffith played the hunter. I had no idea this book was so well known (or dated back so far).
The intelligence community has now deemed some of Hillary Clinton's emails "too damaging" to national security to release under any circumstances, according to a U.S. government official close to the ongoing review. A second source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, backed up the finding.
The decision to withhold the documents in full, and not provide even a partial release with redactions, further undercuts claims by the State Department and the Clinton campaign that none of the intelligence in the emails was classified when it hit Clinton's personal server.
This all comes in the context of the State Department failing to meet a judge's orders to disclose these emails in a timely manner, with State also not even saying if they'll be able to release them with a delay.
The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton's unsecured home server contained some of the U.S. government's most closely guarded secrets, censoring 22 emails with material demanding one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes just three days before the Iowa presidential nominating caucuses in which Clinton is a candidate.
The State Department will release its next batch of emails from Clinton's time as secretary of state later Friday.
But The Associated Press has learned seven email chains are being withheld in full because they contain information deemed to be "top secret." The 37 pages include messages recently described by a key intelligence official as concerning so-called "special access programs" - a highly restricted subset of classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes or government eavesdropping.
Team Hillary's spin? "We demand you release these highly classified emails which we also know it's against the law to release."
She wants to pretend that these aren't top secret.
Catherine Herridge is not having this twit's weird claim that while these emails have been confirmed as SAP (higher than top secret) when they hit the server, they weren't "marked" as SAP when they hit the server. He won't say if he accepts this confirmation (for the intelligence services, which certify this information was in fact SAP when Hillary sent it out), and also won't say he disputes it. He just keeps pushing Hillary's line that they weren't "marked" as such.
"Are you saying that you do not accept the sworn declaration of the intelligence community that these emails were classified when they were sent?"
He keeps saying they accept the "upgrade" to top secret, but won't admit that the IC has said they were top secret at the moment they were sent -- that is, they weren't "upgraded" to classified, they always were classified.
He is now being grilled on this "marked" bullshit -- another reporter, a male, is pointing out that it doesn't matter if it's "marked" classified if it is classified.
The spokesman is saying "that process is ongoing" and that it will be answered by some separate process.
Let me once again say that Catherine Herridge is indispensable. She just keeps coming back on this and will not allow him to continue not answering. (But he continues to not answer.)
Let me explain her line of questioning: While the spokesman claims State accepts the "upgrade" to classified status, he refuses to admit this information was already classified. He is insisting that a separate State Department inquiry will figure out if this stuff was in fact already classified, and not just "upgraded" to classified now.
Herridge keeps pointing out that the agency which originated the intelligence gets to make that call -- and they've already made it. Hence, there is no role for the State Department to make some sort of independent investigation; the answer is already in hand. But he won't accept that; as a dilatory and evasive tactic, he's inisting that State be allowed to look into this matter.
Over and over again, she presses him: It has been looked into by the only people authorized to offer a finding on it. Do you accept that?
He keeps saying he'll wait for some other "process" at State to determine this.
He once again says the State Department will review the classification at the time the emails were sent, ignoring the fact they'd already been sworn as classified at that moment by the agency responsible for the information.
Jesus, he just stressed it wasn't "marked" classified. Again.
And again he says it's being "upgraded" to top secret -- he will not concede it was always top secret. They insist on claiming the top secret status is a new thing, or at least, they're unwilling to concede otherwise.
The U.S. economy's growth slowed sharply in the final three months of 2015 to a 0.7 percent annual rate. Consumers slowed spending, businesses cut back on investment and global problems trimmed exports.
The slowdown could renew doubts about the durability of the 6½-year-old economic expansion, though most economists expect growth to rebound in the current January-March quarter.
Obviously the question is whether this is the crash landing signalling a new recession (which itself would be confirmation that we've just been scootching along in a Depression) or if we return to the anemic less-than-inflation-plus-population-growth we've so long enjoyed under Obama.
Here's what I think is going on: The refugees are acting as they are, not because they see themselves as charity cases, but because they see themselves as conquerors. They know perfectly well that one doesn't defecate in a pool in which people (especially children) are swimming. They're doing it because they are performing the literal equivalent of the expression "I don't give a shit about you." They know you're not supposed to rape women . . . that is, unless those women are the products of conquest, in which case raping them is one of Mohamed's commandments.
It's almost funny seeing Europeans trying politely to teach their conquerors how not to treat those whom they have conquered. I wonder how long it will take before the Europeans figure out that they're no longer in the driver's seat. And then I wonder whether they'll be able or willing to mount a counter-strike, or whether the twelve-hundred year-long Islamic jihad against Europe will finally have succeeded.
Well, that's the thing: She owns her. The notion that women have zero say in their lives seems limited to countries that people thoroughly enjoy emigrating from. Not sure if there's a correlation there, but it's just wise to disabuse yourself of the notion that women are chattel. By and large, they cannot be told what to do, and you will not be able to prevent them from watching "Downton Abbey."
You will have to accept that you are not the boss of them. Any other mindset is dated and coincidently ensures you will not be dated. In Western society, it is quite common for women to rise to positions of great prestige and power. In fact, Republicans are working hard to ensure that a woman is elected president of the United States!
My Daughter Has Dishonored Me and Needs to Be Killed. Cool?
Nope! Nope! Listen, we really want a hiccup-free assimilation, so we're glad you asked. Most of us in the West-actually, all of us-are incapable of picturing a scenario where strangling a daughter is an actual option. This bears repeating: Countries that turn a blind eye to filicide seem to be the very same countries people don't want to live in. Coincidence? Who knows, but no. Perhaps this little rhyme can help: To live here in the West, God willing, just say no to honor killing.
Now, obviously, as a pro-death conservative, I'm all for this radical departure from basic societal norms. "No work, no food" sounds like a relatively just system. I don't know that I'd take it quite so far as O'Malley - animals are jerks, for the most part - but hey, sometimes you have to suggest an extreme idea in order to get a more moderate one enacted. That being said, I'm kind of surprised that a nominal liberal like O'Malley wants to emulate the animal kingdom.
Anne's issues are contemporary issues: feminism, prejudice, bullying and a desire to belong. The stakes are high and her emotional journey is tumultuous. I'm thrilled to delve deeply into this resonant story, push the boundaries and give it new life.
The CBC confirmed the new approach the series would take; it will "explore new territory" as its characters experience "original adventures." And then there's the fact that Martin Sheen is cast as Matthew Cuthbert. No. Just, no.
...Remaking a classic is no simple affair. It's almost by nature a doomed enterprise. Can you imagine if a producer announced he was going to take another stab at The Godfather? They'd be laughed out of Hollywood. The 1985 production of Anne of Green Gables was, effectively, The Godfather for the female sex. It's untouchable, and not replicable. Like the novels it is based on, the original screen version became a classic in its own rite.
If there was ever one thing that could drive Mrs. Maetenloch into cutting a bitch, it's mucking around with Anne of Green Gables.
[And speaking of Mrs. M this weekend I was asking her how come she was still using an old crappy charger when we had several new ones - and without skipping a beat she immediately rolled into a Milton-I-just-want-my-Swingline routine. Which is reason #119 I married her. What's extra impressive is that English is not her native language and she's only seen office Space once and that was years ago.]
In which L. Gordon Crovitz argues that the Oxford students wanting Cecil Rhodes' statue torn down and his name scrubbed from the university are ignorant of the man and the context of the times:
The Cape Colony under Rhodes was liberal for its day. Africans could vote if they met the same property-holding or income requirements as whites. Rhodes might have bent too far to placate the Boers, the Dutch settlers whose support he needed to rule the colony. But at the end of his political career, Rhodes opposed a Boer plan to submit Africans to a literacy test before they could vote. Only after Rhodes left office did the Boers establish apartheid as official policy.
When Rhodes created his scholarship in 1902, he included a clause far ahead of its time. His will specifies that no student will be "qualified or disqualified on account of his race or religious opinions."
The first black Rhodes Scholar, Alain Locke, was elected in 1907. Locke's American peers shunned him; some threatened to resign their scholarships in protest. An official history of the scholarship explains why the Rhodes trustees rejected the complaints: "There was plenty of 'color' in the British Empire," they said, and no one "was going to be debarred from a Rhodes scholarship on that ground." Locke became a leading writer and scholar.
Instead of trying to erase Rhodes, Nelson Mandela embraced him. In 2002 the South African statesman posed for a photo in Cape Town beside a portrait of Rhodes. Mandela wagged a finger at him and said: "Cecil, now you and I are going to work together." The Mandela-Rhodes Foundation funds education for Africans. "Combining our name with that of Cecil Rhodes in this initiative is to sign the closing of the circle and the coming together of two strands of our history," Mandela said.
Nevertheless, the discrepancy between the main Anglican churches in Western countries and those in Africa (now the demographic center of the Anglican Communion) is instructive. The Church of England has 44 dioceses with 26 million official members, 1.2 million "realistic" ones. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has 111 dioceses with 2.4 million official members, 800,000 "realistic" ones. Nigeria and Uganda are the largest churches in Africa, the website does not differentiate between the two categories of members; be this as it may, in Nigeria there are over 100 dioceses with over 17 million members, in Uganda 32 dioceses with over 9 million members. It's clear who has the numbers. Needless to say, the financial resources of the Western churches are much superior to the African ones.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has been trying hard to avoid an outright schism. A recent event, which he himself caused for this end, has made his task more difficult. The leaders of African Anglicans, along with those in other non-Western countries, have been particularly shocked as the Episcopal Church in the U.S. sequentially consecrated an openly gay bishop, then ordained gay and lesbian priests, and most recently authorized priests to conduct same-sex weddings.
But the new African elites who celebrated the end of the Victorian Raj had been successfully indoctrinated with Victorian morals-and those turned out to be very functional to poor people trying to get out of poverty (if you will, the Max Weber effect), even if the elite (like elites everywhere) only paid lip service to moral principles while enjoying the hedonism supported by the privileges of power. But Anglican bishops are not part of the elites in Africa: When they uphold good Protestant values, in the best Evangelical tradition, this is no mere lip service-they really mean it! And so the Archbishop of Uganda may by 2019 excommunicate the Archbishop of Canterbury!
Last fall PJ Media's Patrick Poole reported that US citizen and No Fly List = Islamophobia poster boy, Saadiq Long, was arrested in Turkey during a raid on an ISIS cell. Glenn Greenwald was outraged by this and wrote a multi-thousand word screed calling Poole a liar, rebutting claims that Poole never made in his story, and asserting that Long had in fact never been arrested in Turkey. But then last week the US DOJ dropped a turd bomb of truth all over Glenn's claims.
By which they mean people you've never heard of or celebrities who are only famous for being tranny. Also Donald Trump makes an appearance. </clickbait> :-)
Okay I learned things I really wish I hadn't reading this article. And so will you if you click the link. I present it here solely as a blog Gom Jabbar test to see who can override their animal nature.
Tonight's post brought to you by not to be used except in emergencies:
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I'll watch some of both. Mostly the debate. i'll change channels when like Kasich and Rand are speaking.
Oh, the debate's on Fox, and CNN is carrying the Trump counter-program as a "live news event," which means they'll cover it for as long as they think it's news, or at least good for ratings.
Risen, a mystery/thriller about a Roman centurion charged with tracking down Christ's body to dispel rumors of his resurrection, and thereby quell a Jewish uprising.
As pure propaganda -- and "propaganda" has a strictly neutral meaning for anyone who actually knows the word -- I don't think I've heard a better plotline for evangelizing.
The trick here is that the movie actually begins (I imagine) like a pretty secular affair -- we've got a political problem with this uprising of Jews and these silly claims, so we're sending in a detective to find the body.
I don't think, in this movie, the centurion is going to find the body.
So what begins as a secular detective mystery (with odd historical trappings) winds up as a conversion piece.
That's pretty brilliant, isn't it?
It's a religious movie (I assume) that isn't even definitely religious until, say, the last fifteen minutes or so.* Heck, even I could sit through that, and I really don't like religious movies.
Plus, given that (I imagine) pretty much all of this is made up (unless you guys know of a story of the Roman centurion charged with this task), the writers wouldn't have the problems that dog movies like Noah, with people shooting down things for, allegedly, not being properly scriptual. All they really need for scripture here is a bit of Roman history and a very little bit (I assume) taken from the Bible.
* Well I imagine there are lots of ambiguous, is-He-or-isn't-He hints dropped before then, with, I imagine, that sort of musical cue they now use in every movie to suggest the holy and mysterious. (Sort of an ancient middle eastern fanfare.) Like the hints of the Ark's power in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
This may be seen as "respect" for the Iranians' prudery and barbarism, but it's not, it's capitulation. Respect is really a two way street, and I mean that in the sense that if it's not reciprocated, it's not respect -- it's simply fear of one party for the other.
In addition, you can't really respect someone else unless you have respect for yourself.
Again, if you don't have respect for yourself, the deference you show to others isn't "respect;" it's just fear.
The French may be arrogant and jingoist, but, on the other hand, they're also arrogant and jingoist -- Hollande refused to take wine off the menu at a scheduled lunch, just because Iran's Mullah began throwing his menace around.
Reporters Ask Sanders About Rumors of Planned Voter Fraud in Iowa to Benefit Him; Sanders Blames David Brock for the Rumors
—Ace
And he questions why someone would believe David Brock's claims, noting, sarcastically, Brock's "integrity."
"Really? Is that what they’re saying?" Sanders shot back, heatedly.
"Based on what did they say that? Based on David Brock's long history of honesty and integrity? The man who tried to destroy Anita Hill? Is this where this is coming from?" the 74-year-old bellowed.
The rumor concerns the Sanders' campaign allegedly scheming to bus out-of-state students into Iowa to rig the caucuses against Hillary.
James Taranto noted that Hillary Clinton has before told us all that any Republican concerns about voter fraud were just all racist fearmongering.
But apparently now, when she's got this rumor going, it's something that should concern us all.
Tremors, Shaking Felt In Southern New Jersey Counties; USGS Says No Earthquake Detected, but a Sonic Boom Was
—Ace
I'm posting this in hopes that one of you knows something about this subject and can tell me how a sonic boom could produce tremors so far away, and what the heck could produce a sonic boom so big.
This is a reverse blog post.
Update: They say it was fighter jets breaking the sound barrier but the local Air Force bases say they're not doing any exercises.
I've heard it myself -- people want to caucus, but haven't been told where to go, or people have volunteered to speak on his behalf (as one does in a caucus), but have not been told whether they've been appointed to do that myself.
Trump is trying to win this election on the cheap -- free media, as-little-as-possible spent on campaign activities. On the advertisement front, fine, that works; he's got plenty of free advertising.
But I don't think you can skimp on GOTV. I believe that remains the thing you absolutely have to spend money on.
If Iowa and even NH turn into unexpected losses, it will have been lost largely due to this factor.
Trump's decision to spend (mostly) his own money is a double-edged sword. Sounds good in a campaign pledge.
On the other hand, when you're spending your money instead of donors', I guess you get very cheap and stingy and start wondering "Do we really need to spend on that...?"
I guess, as with everything else about Trump, this will remain a total X Factor until Brandon and the AoS Decision Desk start putting up numbers Monday night.
Continuously pretending that a group is somehow eventually going to become like the rest of us is perhaps the deepest form of disrespect.
Because what you are essentially saying is the fact that they behave in a different way, some of which we may not like, is because they haven't yet seen the light. It may be that they see the world differently to the rest of us.
-- Trevor Phillips, former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, on why the UK should just accept that Muslims will never integrate
From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two - the "race" of the decent man and the "race" of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of "pure race" - and therefore one occasionally found a decent fellow among the camp guards.
Albert Goering and his brother Hermann were only two years apart in age, had a nearly identical upbringing, and both fought in WWI. But their lives quickly diverged afterwards; while Hermann was rising in the Nazi ranks, Albert was living a bohemian lifestyle in Vienna and they had little contact during the 1930s. That came to an end with the Anschluss and Albert was soon sucked into the Nazi war effort.
In 1945 he was in custody in Nuremburg being interrogated - and assumed to be just as guilty of war crimes as his brother and soon to follow him to the noose. But Albert claimed that not only was he innocent of any crimes but that he had personally rescued many Jews from being sent to the death camps and helped sabotage the Nazi war machine from within.
Then Albert astonished the Allies by writing out by hand a list of 34 people he claimed to have helped escape the Nazis. The Pilzers were at number 24. Dr Kurt Schuschnigg, the former Chancellor of Austria, was also on the list.
So was the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand of the royal Habsburg dynasty.
Albert claimed that his brother Hermann was so triumphant after Austria was annexed, he 'allowed everyone a wish. My sister and I asked for the release of the old archduke'. Hermann 'was very embarrassed' but the next day 'the arrested Habsburger was free again'.
Albert went on to say that he was saved from the Gestapo and SS - who over time had four warrants out for his immediate arrest - by Hermann himself. 'As far as he could [Hermann] helped me,' Albert claimed, adding that when it came to family, Hitler's deputy 'had a warm heart'.
Albert's claims were immediately dismissed by his Allied interrogators as far-fetched. An interrogation report said he was guilty of 'as clever a piece of rationalisation and whitewash' as the interrogators had ever seen.
It concluded: 'Albert Goering's lack of subtlety is matched only by the bulk of his obese brother.'
But Albert got a very lucky break. By sheer chance one of the American interpreters, Viktor Parker, happened to be the nephew of one of the women on the list - and when he reached out to his aunt, she verified Albert's story.
He was a Jewish refugee to America and his family had changed their real name, Paschkis. His aunt, Sophie, had converted to Catholicism and married the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehar, best known for writing The Merry Widow. Lehar had been detained by the Nazis because of his marriage to someone born Jewish.
And by an amazing coincidence, Sophie was number 15 on Albert's list! Parker spoke to his aunt about how Albert had helped them to leave Austria. Thanks to a most unlikely twist of fate, Albert's story was validated by one of the men sent to help convict him at Nuremberg.
And others later verified other parts of Albert's claims:
Yet Albert's troubles were not over. He had worked as the export manager at Czech car firm Skoda, which had been converted to Nazi war production, and the post-war authorities in Prague wanted him on charges of Nazi collaboration.
Now members of the Czech resistance who worked in the Skoda factory came forward and testified that Albert had helped them undermine the Nazi occupiers, passing on information to the resistance and encouraging acts of sabotage.
Albert, it emerged, had not only lobbied his brother to release individual prisoners from Dachau, but also forged Hermann's signature on documents that allowed anti-Nazi activists and Jews to escape Hitler's henchmen.
He took company trucks and drove away inmates as 'forced labourers' before parking in secluded areas and allowing them to escape.
All charges were dropped against Albert but his post-war life was not a happy one and he died in obscurity in 1966. However half a century after his death he has been recently submitted for recognition as Righteous Among The Nations.
Note that there is a twist at the very end of the story that might explain everything about Albert. Or nothing. Perhaps it did tilt him in a certain direction but I think that the brothers were just fundamentally different men who at critical points made their own divergent choices about how they would live their lives.
Gunsite Academy regularly offers their shooting courses for free to members of the military. Here an Air Force combat controller in the 223 carbine course goes through a shoothouse run.
The scenario is that he was part of personal security convoy protecting a female VIP that has been attacked by jihadis who have dragged her into a nearby building. Everyone except for him is too injured to continue and he is in hot pursuit of the attackers. The serviceman does well but is still 'killed' twice in the house.
You can see a more advanced student running through the same scenario here.
So when we were in LA earlier this month, I rented a car from Sixt. The deal was a BMW 5-series "or equivalent" for 42 bucks a day. When the "equivalent" turned out to be a Cadillac CTS, I was a bit miffed, but it was actually a very pleasant car to drive - quick, taut, with comfy/sporty seats and a good nav system. It actually had a German feel to it, not the mushiness I associate with Cadillacs. On the other hand, when we drove the Insta-Daughter to the airport, it started bucking, the check engine light started flashing, and it informed me that the "Stabilitrack" traction-control was shot. After limping to the terminal to drop her off for her flight, I returned it to the Sixt place at the airport and they very quickly gave me a new one. You can't draw a conclusion about reliability from a single incident, but this didn't inspire confidence.
I've used Sixt several times in Germany and always had good experiences. In fact time one time we arrived at a rental location and found out that it closed early on Sundays leaving us out of luck. But one of the car cleaners was still around and went and convinced one of the desk staff eating at a nearby restaurant to come back to the office afterwards and rent us a car.
What makes this calculator totally unique among all consumer electronic products is that it was first introduced by HP 35 years ago at a retail price of $150 (almost $400 in today's dollars) in 1981, and yet even today is considered to be a relevant, up-to-date, "state of the art" product for financial professionals, CPAs, financial analysts, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, investors and finance professors. I have used HP-12C financial calculators on almost a daily basis since the 1980s and currently own five of them: two original 12C models, one 25th Anniversary models (released in 2006), and two "Platinum" 12C model.
And you can still buy an HP-12C today for only $70. Back in the 80s I managed to convince my parents to buy me an HP-15c (the scientific version of the 12c) and I used it all the way through college, graduate school and later employment. I lost track of it sometime around 2000 and I'm convinced that it was stolen by some covetous HP fan. Even though all of its functions are now available in an iphone/ipad app, I still miss its sheer amount of functionality packed into a light but robust case along with the tactile feel of its keys.
Nestled among a number of picturesque hot springs in the mountains of Kyoto, the traditionally-styled Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan in the Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, is recognized as the world's oldest hotel, inn, and possibly even business in general, catering to everyone from ancient samurai to modern tourists for over a thousand years.
...From its inception, the Keiunkan onsen has been passed down within the original family through the centuries. 52 different generations of descendants have cared for and operated the inn, growing the space and modernizing it slowly with each passing epoch.
Also, they'll be purging old white people. No really. They'll be making sure you've been active in the business within the last ten years, or else you forfeit your Academy membership.
I can kind of see some sense in that. A lot of years lame movies win the Oscars, and it's because a lot of old people, who aren't very current at all, decided that they should make Out of Africa the winner because it was directed by someone whose name they recognize.
Still... I don't know.
This woman, who did the costumes for The Deer Hunter, is arguing against the new diversity rules.
Our job is to evaluate talent and excellence. But now your actions have added a new, unspoken category -- the "what is your ethnicity" category. This, unfortunately, comes with the ugly subtext that if you don't vote for a person of color you are a racist. Excellence is rewarded regardless of ethnic background.
...
A few years ago, I had a situation arise which completely exemplifies our recent troubles. An Asian actress friend of mine wished to join the Academy. She had theater and TV credits, but little in the way of film credits. I cautioned her that she may not be accepted because of this, but her response was only that she was a minority and therefore would get in. Needless to say, she did not because she lacked the essential credentials. This friend of mine then turned around and blamed the Academy for not accepting her because of her race, the very thing she was convinced would get her in in the first place. Now with your new policies and the climate they create, my friend will apply again and this time most likely she will be accepted. Her eligibility has not changed -- she did not have the film credentials then, nor does she now.
But now, perhaps, that may just be enough. Not only is the value of the Academy as a measuring stick for excellence in film lessened, but it will always raise the question: did one get in because of merit or because of race? For any person of diversity, this will always shadow their acceptance into this fine institution.
I support these rules for a simple reason: Liberal institutions have long ignored the onerous, stupid rules they inflict on everyone else. They don't realize how bad these rules are, because they except themselves.
Thus we get super-white Vox arguing about other companies not hiring enough minorities.
It's time that they lived under their own rules. Period.
If they have a change of heart after living under the regime they'd force on everyone else, so much the better.
By the way, I saw Cruz prosecuting Trump for the non-appearance -- he was really effective.
This might turn out to be a really bad move on Trump's part. Cruz was out of the gates with a really tough and credible attack on Trump for, as he put it, failing to have the "humility" to "stand before" the voters of Iowa and accept their scrutiny and judgment.
Meanwhile, this amuses me: Rubio's supporters, who are ninnies, have all been on the same page, parroting the same claims for months, like they always do. One of their biggest mantras is that "Cruz is a pussy because he won't attack Trump."
Well, Rubio also doesn't attack Trump. Rubes' Boys just wanted to try to make Trump and Cruz attack each other, so that Rubes could just slip into first without doing anything but talking about gran-gran's cigars.
Which frankly is a weird thing to talk about, but whatever.
But now Cruz is really going after Trump pretty damn hard, and Rubes is declining to attack him, calling the matter a "sideshow" and insisting we must talk about "the future" or whatever.
Cruz backer Steve King is also pouring it on Trump, and this Slate writer, who's damn good, says the GOP Establishment is straight-up lying when they claim they prefer Trump to Cruz. They're trying to take out Cruz to clear a path for, you guessed it, Rubez.
Jonah Goldberg notes the Establishment is actually bragging about this to their pals at the New York Times.
"Do they all love Trump? No," Republican lobbyist Richard F. Hohlt told the New York Times. "But there's a feeling that he is not going to layer over the party or install his own person. Whereas Cruz will have his own people there."
It's hard to criticize Limbaugh & Co. for cynically questioning the motives of the establishment when party apparatchiks confess them in the pages of the New York Times.
Terry McCauliffe: Pragmatist or Pussy? According to the WaPo, a master Pragmatist. But anti 2 A'ers are pretty sure he's a pussy. I think he just knows when he's schlonged. [krak/t]
TheDC: 300 Scientists Want NOAA To Stop Hiding Its Global Warming Data "Hundreds of scientists sent a letter to lawmakers Thursday warning National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists may have violated federal laws when they published a 2015 study purporting to eliminate the 15-year “hiatus” in global warming from the temperature record." [rdbrewer]
Mark Steyn: Witless Ape: The Director's Cut "The past is another country, and the Chamber of Commerce Republicans gave it away. Reagan's California no longer exists. And, if America as a whole takes on the demographics of California, then "the conservative movement" will no longer exist." [rdbrewer]
Edge: The Crusade Against Multiple Regression Analysis "A huge range of science projects are done with multiple regression analysis. The results are often somewhere between meaningless and quite damaging." [rdbrewer]
Washington Post: Scientists open the ‘black box’ of schizophrenia with dramatic genetic discovery "In patients with schizophrenia, a variation in a single position in the DNA sequence marks too many synapses for removal and that pruning goes out of control. The result is an abnormal loss of gray matter. ¶ The genes involved coat the neurons with 'eat-me signals,' said study co-author Beth Stevens, a neuroscientist at Children's Hospital and Broad. 'They are tagging too many synapses. And they're gobbled up.'" [rdbrewer]
NY Times: When Your Neighbor’s Drone Pays an Unwelcome Visit The curtilage needs to be protected, and of course that includes the air around it. The FAA's "airspace" does not extend to my bathroom window or the grass in my yard, despite what they may have asserted. If you fly a drone into someone's backyard, you're giving them permission to blow it out of the sky. That's how the law should read. /soapbox [rdbrewer]
Megan McArtde, Bloomberg: Don't Blame Americans for Blaming China "Free traders -- and I include myself -- have often sounded too glib about the offsetting benefits of cheap imports. Cheap imports are great. But people value work, and the ability to build some sort of reasonably predictable, stable economic future, more than they do cheap flat-panel televisions." [rdbrewer]
The Hill: Trump up by 7 points in Iowa; dominant in NH, SC "The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Thursday morning shows Trump with 32 percent support among likely Republican caucusgoers. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is in second place with 25 percent, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) with 18 percent. No other Republican candidate has double-digit support in the Hawkeye State." [rdbrewer]
The Hill: RNC drops NBC as debate host From last week. A reminder from Drudge. Applying the logic I saw on Twitter last night about Trump, it must be because the RNC are cowards who are afraid to face NBC. They're yella. Yella-bellies with pee-pee pants. [rdbrewer]
Interesting Article on Society's Discomfort With Masculinity and Male Rambunctuousness The problem is, you can't take the male out of men -- if there are no healthy, acceptable outlets for male initiative, we'll just make some unhealthy ones. Hate to say this, but look at hardline Islamic societies. Male impulses thwarted, do the men become orderly and socially benevolent, or rather the reverse?
