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December 29, 2014

Overnight Open Thread (12-29-2014)

—Maetenloch

Quietly, the US and NATO End the War in Afghanistan

After 13 years of fighting.

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.

afghanfinal

France Ends its 75% Tax Rate on the Rich

It turns out that the rich had the means to avoid paying the tax by just leaving France - along with their assets and businesses.

What Does It Take to Be a Driver in Obama's Motorcade?

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."

obama-motorcade-hawaii

Continue reading


Posted by Maetenloch at 10:19 PM Comments



Oppo Drop: Louisiana Congressman and New House Majority Whip Steve Scalise Spoke at Gathering Organized by David Duke in 2002

—Ace

Well okay then.

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.

Posted by Ace at 06:32 PM Comments



Oh, Yes: Jeb Bush Rockets to Head of the Pack in New Poll

—Ace

Isn't this terrific? Jeb Bush is favored by 23% of Republicans.

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.


Posted by Ace at 05:20 PM Comments

Obama Boots Wedding Off Venue He's Got the Golf Jones

—Ace

They'd been planning the wedding for months, obviously, but Obama decided to play golf on a whim and so had them relocated under serious time pressures.

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.

What a guy.

Posted by Ace at 02:32 PM Comments

Addled Old Hippie Garry Trudeau Publishes New Comic Strip Which Indicates He Doesn't Know the UVa Rape Scandal Has Been Exposed as a Fabrication

—Ace

Up-to-the-minute smart takes with Garry Trudeau.


Posted by Ace at 01:21 PM Comments

Obama: Racial Tensions Are Now Coming Out in a "In a Way that is Probably Healthy "

—Ace

The community organizer just keeps organizin' his communities.

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.

Healthy.

Posted by Ace at 12:32 PM Comments

Open Thread

—rdbrewer


Franz Bischoff, "Cleft-Born Trees, Monterey" (1924)

Posted by rdbrewer at 10:42 AM Comments

Overnight Open Thread (12-28-2014)

—Maetenloch

Quote of the Day I

"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."

Quote of the Day II

"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."

-- Rudy Giuliani on Face the Nation

More: Why Al Sharpton Should be Fired From MSNBC - But Never Will Be and How Al Sharpton Became Obama's Go-To Man on Race

And Bookworm explains why Holding Sharpton et al. accountable for the killings of Ramos and Liu is not the same as the Left's freak-out over Palin's web site in 2011.

Quote of the Day III

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.

Quote of the Day IV

"I don't know that a crime has occurred, but a pile of trash in the middle of the street? The Washington Post is making a call over this?"

-- Ferguson Police Department's public relations officer in response to a report that someone ran over a Michael Brown 'memorial' in the street.

Quote of the Day  V

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

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Posted by Maetenloch at 10:29 PM Comments

Biggest Bust [Y-not]

—Open Blogger

No, I'm not talking about CBD's Food Thread!

I mean this guy:

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Posted by Open Blogger at 07:30 PM Comments

Gun Thread (12-28-2014)

—Andy

About that SIG AR pistol brace

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.

Gun Of The Week

image.jpg

(answer below)

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Posted by Andy at 05:00 PM Comments

Food Thread: Healthy, Economical, and (hopefully) Tasty [CBD]

—Open Blogger

I'm not into New Years resolutions, but it just so happens, starting now, I'm gonna start eating better.

But I need to know what foods to buy...and how to prepare them. Plus, my inner-joo wants my improved diet to be economical. So let's trade tips.

For instance, beans. Great food but gassy and time-consuming to prepare. What else?

-- Slippery When Soothsayer

Ignoring the silliness of "...but gassy," which is a feature not a bug, here is everything you need to know about diet:

AOSHQ Food Pyramid2.png

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Posted by Open Blogger at 04:00 PM Comments

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.

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Posted by Gang of Gaming Morons! at 03:12 PM Comments

Sunday Football Thread

—Dave In Texas

For you. For America.

nfl-cheerleaders-heat-winter-weather-week-14.jpg

Posted by Dave In Texas at 01:01 PM Comments

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).

Anyway, as of last week, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie were out ahead of the pack, at least for those names polled (notice anyone missing?):

There's a couple noteworthy things here.

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.

Continue reading


Posted by Gabriel Malor at 12:02 PM Comments

Sunday Morning Book Thread 12-28-2014: Wring Out The Old [OregonMuse]

—Open Blogger


Strahav Library Prague 525.jpg
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.

So, this being the book thread, my answer takes the form of two other books: Thank God I Had a Gun: True Accounts of Self-Defense and of course Andrew Branca's The Law of Self Defense: The Indispensable Guide to the Armed Citizen. Also, let's not forget the third edition of John Lott's classic More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws.

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.

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Posted by Open Blogger at 09:25 AM Comments

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.

bad handwriting.jpg

* 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.

Posted by Open Blogger at 06:30 AM Comments

Late Night Bedspins [dri]

—Open Blogger

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.

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Posted by Open Blogger at 03:37 AM Comments

Overnight Open Thread (27 Dec 2014)

—CDR M

According to Max Blumenthal: American sniper Chris Kyle was just a popular mass murderer.

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.

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Posted by CDR M at 10:00 PM Comments

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....

JYBA opening day 615-L.jpg

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Posted by Open Blogger at 04:12 PM Comments

Cool Ice Open Thread [krakatoa]

—Open Blogger

Ice is neat.

20141226_090729.jpg

Posted by Open Blogger at 02:38 PM Comments

Israel On Christmas Morning [CBD]

—Open Blogger

Barry Wilmore woke up early on Christmas morning to take some pictures.....

Israel-NASA.jpg

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).

Posted by Open Blogger at 11:00 AM Comments

Fundamental Concepts - On Racism [Weirddave]

—Open Blogger

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.


black can.jpg

That's Racist!


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Posted by Open Blogger at 09:41 AM Comments

Early Morning Thread, 12/27/14 - Ham. [krakatoa]

—Open Blogger

So on Christmas morning, I mentioned the ham that went on the smoker.

We've done some good ones before. But this was possibly the best thing I've ever done with a pig.

8 days in a cure my wife created called "Gingerbread".

1 day in a water bath (with the water refreshed twice).

3 hours in the smoker at 225 with a steady diet of cherry wood chunks.

1 hour rest, then an hour in the oven @ 325 with a simple raspberry/ginger glaze applied in 3 coats.

20141225_144209.jpg

20141225_163819.jpg

I only wish we'd bought a bigger ham. I will not make that mistake again.

Posted by Open Blogger at 07:34 AM Comments

Overnight Open Thread (26 Dec 2014)

—CDR M

Hope all you morons had a good Christmas and got everything you wanted from Santa.

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Posted by CDR M at 10:05 PM Comments

Lest We Forget [Y-not]

—Open Blogger

The family, friends, and brothers in blue of Police Officer Rafael Ramos honored* him today:

*Correction: his funeral is scheduled for Saturday. Today was a tribute service.

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Posted by Open Blogger at 08:50 PM Comments

For Rutgers, For Ace OPEN THREAD

—Dave In Texas

For America.

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.

6179699561_b63fe1aa51_z (448x299).jpg

Posted by Dave In Texas at 05:53 PM Comments

All I Want For Christmas [OregonMuse]

—Open Blogger

drueke pieces.jpg

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.

So what did you morons get for Christmas?

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Posted by Open Blogger at 04:28 PM Comments

A Time to be Thankful [Y-not]

—Open Blogger

Happy Boxing Day!

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.

871d670f9fcd2895def266382cdc8031.jpg

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.

For what are you most thankful?

Here's Bing (singing to Rosemary):

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Posted by Open Blogger at 02:40 PM Comments

Open Thread

—Ace

Spaz gets tossed off American Airline flight after spazzing out over "Merry Christmas" greetings and being found to be a spasmoid threat to the good working of the air crew.

Posted by Ace at 01:20 PM Comments

Open Thread

—rdbrewer


Camille Pissarro, "The Boulevard Monmartre at Night" (1897)

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Posted by rdbrewer at 11:21 AM Comments

Monkey Saves Dying Friend Morning Thread

—BenK

Feel good story of the day here.

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.

Video below the fold.

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Posted by BenK at 08:16 AM Comments

Overnight Open Thread (12025-2014) - Christmas Day Edition

—Maetenloch

Quote of the Day I

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.

Quote of the Day II

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.

-- Powerline's John Hinderaker

winter-wonderland-winter-image-24

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Posted by Maetenloch at 10:28 PM Comments

Open Thread

—rdbrewer


Camille Pissarro, "House at Montfoucault" (1874)

Posted by rdbrewer at 06:28 PM Comments

Jesus has a sense of humor, right? - [Niedermeyer's Dead Horse]

—Open Blogger

I laughed. Hard.

I hope Jesus did too.



Merry Christmas Morons and Moronettes.

*Open thread.

Posted by Open Blogger at 05:05 PM Comments

Christmas in Italy, 1944

—Dave In Texas

Christmas Day 1944.jpg

Posted by Dave In Texas at 02:11 PM Comments

Merry Christmas

—rdbrewer


Posted by rdbrewer at 10:43 AM Comments

Christmas Morning Open Thread [krakatoa]

—Open Blogger

Merry Christmas, everyone.

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.

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 06:53 AM Comments

Overnight Open Thread (12-24-2014)–Christmas Eve Edition

—Maetenloch

light12animated-christmas-line

Bing Crosby and David Bowie's One and Only Duet

From 1977.

Hallelujah Chorus Flash Mob

Beethoven Ninth Symphony Performed by a Japanese Chorus of 10,000

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.

Continue reading


Posted by Maetenloch at 09:24 PM Comments



The AoSHQ Amazon Store


Top Headlines
The government sprinkles on the misery 330 million servings at a time. This IS NOT from The Onion, no matter how convinced you may be. HT Preshone TX [NDH]

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]

Reuters: Obama: Iran has 'chance to get right with the world'
Feel the power of Obama words. [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]

Glenn Reynolds, USA Today: Politicians benefit from American tribal warfare
"Tribalism is the default state of humanity: The tendency to defend our own tribe even when we think it's wrong, and to attack other tribes even when they're right, just because they're other." [rdbrewer]

Sony World Photography Awards
Latest open entries. Many other galleries. [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]

Newsweek: Study Finds Body Cameras Decrease Police’s Use of Force
"[T]he study, based on a 12-month trial in Rialto, California, found that body-worn cameras reduced the use of force by roughly 50 percent...." [rdbrewer]

CBS New York: Rex Ryan, GM John Idzik Fired As Jets Quickly Move Forward
It's about time. [rdbrewer]

Politico: Top 100 political donors
Democrats top the list. [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]
IJ Review: Actor James Woods Demolishes Glowing Article on Obama with One Tweet
"[W]hen CBS published its article about Obama’s amazing athleticism, a lot of Twitter users came back with humorous incredulity..." [rdbrewer]


John Fund and Hans Von Spakovsky: Holder and Obama are making race relations worse, inflaming hatred
"A Pew Research Center poll found that only 40% of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling race relations. Black approval is down to 57%, while approval among whites is down to 33%.... Eric Holder has one of the lowest approval ratings of any public official." [rdbrewer]
Let's hope this isn't a repeat of MH370. AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Indonesia to Singapore missing [stuiec]
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]
Housemate Walker Fight! Hillary & Bill in scuffle? Seriously, this was my first thought. [krak/t]

Obama: America Has Become ‘Less Racially Divided’ Under My Presidency
"'No,' the president answered. 'I actually think that it’s probably in its day-to-day interactions less racially divided.'" [rdbrewer]
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]


Opposition to de Blasio reaches new heights
Yeah, but de Blasio can do this. [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]


The Independent: Mystery of Bulgaria's green cat finally explained
From a few weeks ago. "But it has now emerged that the – as yet unnamed – moggy has been sleeping on the top of an abandoned pile of synthetic green paint in a garage." [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]

ValleyCentral: Police: Cartel claims they have kidnapped Border Patrol agent
Via Drudge. Protip: This is not a good idea, cartel dummy. [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]
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