Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!
Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the first November Edition? How was your Halloween? we had precisely 1.0 trick-or-treaters. How about you?
Does the time change have you all screwed up yet?
With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
Fundamentals of trigger reset and (not) flinching, that is.
Q: Weasel, how do we not flinch?
A: Easy. Tell yourself not to flinch.
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How To Field Strip a 1911
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Shot Yourself At The range?
No Worries! Here is how to apply an 'Israeli Bandage'.
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More High Speed Photography and Colliding Bullets
Don't try this at the range with your buds.
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Our Pal Telephone Courtesy
Are you courteous on the telephone? You should be courteous on the telephone.
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Highway Patrol!
This week's episode: License Plates!
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The Time Machine!
The 1960 adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic. Absolutely in Weasel's Top 8.
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Cigar of the Week
This week our pal rhomboid scores bigly with this excellent overview of cigars that won't break the bank!
Even as we enter the bounty and prosperity of America's Golden Age, some of us remain... cheap. No, frugal, that's it. Some of us also can use cigars that are suitable for organic tree farming, processing brass, organizing our collections of Field & Stream, some version of golf, etc. Sticks that are enjoyable but not expensive. Herewith quick looks at 5 sticks I have found to fit this description. They all come as singles and five-packs, but I've used the bundle pricing (usually 20 sticks) here.
Tabacos Baez - a Cuban sandwich (the filler consists partly of short-filler, usually scraps of tobacco from the cutting and rolling of premium cigars) from My Father cigars, the Garcias. Burn line was pretty well behaved for a Cuban sandwich. Draw and smoke volume were good. Flavor profile was a nice earthy maduro one, with hints of sweetness that by the second half had faded, leaving earth and dark woods. Nice stick. ($53 a box of 20, corona vitola)
Rico Barato Maduro - an exclusive of Cigars Daily in Phoenix. Was surprised how nice this one is. Burns well, and not fast, as some find with Cuban sandwich cigars.; A light maduro profile and abundant smoke. Really a decent stick. ($65 a bundle of 20, torpedo)
Rico Barato Connecticut - the other stick in the Rico Barato line. Construction was fine, flavor profile was towards the very light wood side, touch of bitterness at points as is not uncommon for connecticuts. ($65 a bundle of 20, torpedo)
Flor de Oliva corojo - Oliva has a whole line of long-filler bundle-priced sticks, Flor de Oliva, which also come in Original, Maduro, and Connecticut versions. The corojo has a nice mellow flavor profile with a hint of spice and a tangy finish. ($59 a bundle of 20, torpedo)
Quorum Natural - Nice solid basic cigar with a medium habano profile and pleasant tobacco flavors. Quorum now has a natural or "Classic", connecticut, and maduro version. This (the Classic) was usually my golf cigar a few years ago. ($38 a bundle of 20, robusto)
Artisan Tabak - an exclusive (AFAIK) of Atlantic Cigars. A barber pole, with habano and maduro wrapper. A very nice mellow tobacco sweetness to this one, with a medium-bodied core of rich tobacco flavor. Out of a bundle of 20, only one had any construction issues, and was still salvageable. A favorite. ($57 a bundle of 20, robusto)
Bigly excellent, rhomboid! Thank you very much for doing this!
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Extra Special Bonus Cigar Content!
Not a cigar smoker? Well you should start! Not only will it make you one of the cool kids, but you can be cool and not spend a lot of money as our pal Rhomboid points out above. Here is how you get started.
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Here are some different online cigar vendors. You will find they not only carry different brands and different lines from those brands, but also varying selections of vitolas (sizes/shapes) of given lines. It's good to have options, especially if you're looking for a specific cigar.
A note about sources. The brick & mortar/online divide exists with cigars, as with guns, and most consumer products, with respect to price. As with guns - since both are "persecuted industries", basically - I make a conscious effort to source at least some of my cigars from my local store(s). It's a small thing, but the brick & mortar segment for both guns and tobacco are precious, and worth supporting where you can. And if you're lucky enough to have a good cigar store/lounge available, they're often a good social event with many dangerous people of the sort who own scary gunz, or read smart military blogs like this one. -rhomboid
Anyone have others to include? Perhaps a small local roller who makes a cigar you like? Send me your recommendation and a link to the site!
Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
Food Thread: I Say Whisky...You Say Whiskey? Let's Call The Whole Thing Off!
—CBD
I was recently given this bottle by a friend, and aside from it being a delicious and surprisingly delicate example of a Highland Malt, it showcases the relatively new attempts by many distillers to age their Scotch or Rum or Bourbon in interesting barrels or casks.
This one was aged in Sauternes casks, which imparted a subtle sweetness that was unexpected, but very, very nice. No monster mouthful of oak and smoke and iodine...it was subtle and smooth and a thoroughly enjoyable glass!
I think many of these attempts are simply to differentiate a particular brand from the huge numbers of similar liquors. But some are genuine attempts to expand the flavor palates of some already very good booze!
In the past I have been suspicious of this newfangled weirdness (get off my lawn!), but after tasting this bottle I will take it more seriously.
[As for the Whisky vs. Whiskey controversy? It's actually more complicated than it seems.]
As of 2022, 98% of pigs, 99.9% of chickens and 75% of cows in the United States are kept, for a significant portion of their lives, in tightly confined and deeply unnatural conditions known as factory farms. These ratios are similar across other developed nations.
These industrial operations can vary in scale, but their key differentiator from conventional farming is their efficiency. A factory farm optimises for economic efficiency above all other values, which of course massively impacts the quality of life of their animals. A particularly egregious example of this is “gestation crating,” the practice of forcing female pigs to live in cages so short and narrow they cannot even turn around or comfortably lie down for months on end. Such confinement for a cat or a dog for more than a few minutes would be unthinkable to most of us, and yet the vast majority of pigs on Earth—a species more emotionally intelligent than a dog—live this way almost permanently.
Short answer? Maybe, but feeding humans is more important than the welfare of farmed animals. I have beaten this drum in the past, and I will continue to do so until these retards understand that while it is important to treat our food with respect, feeding the world comes first.
As for the toll that large-scale factory farming takes on human health? Yeah...there is a lot of smoke in that argument, but not much light and heat. Everyone has read the scare stories about beef and pork that is tainted with antibiotics, but the data are simply not there. Is antibiotic overuse in agriculture a problem? Absolutely! But not for the hypothetical reasons these authors suggest.
And...I'll bet if we looked into these authors, we would find other motivations. Anyone care to bet against the supposition that they are globalists, probably vegans or vegetarians, and are furiously pimping insect protein as an alternative to tasty, tasty bacon?
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That is my new (to me) local market. Certainly not for everything, but it is a very well-run store, and the deli is particularly fun. And any time I see a sign like this one, I tend to like the establishment. Sure...allergies are a problem, but the hysteria in parts of our culture about them suggests that there are other things at work.
I am reminded of the gluten lunacy. Celiac disease is very uncommon, but it seems like everywhere I look there is a gluten-free option! How many of these people are latching onto it for other reasons? Weight loss? Attention? Neuroses?
Yup, I am being mean, but why is the vast majority being plagued with this stuff?
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Ah...an academic paper that carefully avoids the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
They are suggesting that food-borne E. coli contamination is contributing to UTIs. Okay, but maybe examine exactly how that seems to be happening (if it is)?
Like...for instance...people not washing their hands after food prep! How the hell do these "scholars" think that people get UTIs? There is another pathway that I am simply going to ignore, but I'll bet more than a few of you know exactly which one.
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From lurker "LF" comes some good Midwestern garlic, but at a painful price! He says it's tasty though, so it is worth it, if only to avoid the heavy metals and human excrement in which Chinese garlic is grown!
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At first glance, this blog does everything I hate. It lards the recipes with paragraph after paragraph of blather that lends nothing to the recipe except usually a link to a product, or another page in the blog.
But....CHEESE! Grilled Cheese Social is a cheese-centric blog that really does what it says, and the few recipes I looked at seem pretty solid. Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs (Easy Crockpot Recipe) is easily modified if you don't have a crockpot...I don't but this is probably going on the dinner table at Chez Dildo this month!
It also doesn't take itself too seriously, as this recipe surely suggests! Smash Burger Grilled Cheese with Special Sauce sounds like a sloppy mess, and something that I would absolutely try once, eat with real pleasure and gusto, then probably throw away!
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I thought France would have good garlic, but the Frogs seem to have the same problem we have in the U.S. At least they don't import filthy garlic from China. Pork is great here, but no game, so send all of your extra antelope to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
Who are those poor deluded souls We know who shakes their Manhattans! These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.
$1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.
The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!
It amazes me that makers of otherwise good quality stuff will cheap out on bolts. And then they provide an even crappier hex wrench to turn that soft metal bolt or screw so that it is almost guaranteed to strip.
Spend the extra seven cents! I promise...it will be worth it.
Voting: A Right, A Responsibility, And An Unalloyed Pleasure!
—CBD
I did indeed! Because of a prior commitment, I won't be in my home state of the People's Republic of New Jersey on election day, and I wouldn't miss this one for the world! In fact, I would never miss an important election, and almost never have missed even off-year dogcatcher elections. It is the most basic building block of our Republic, and we all have an equal role in it. And it's not just because it is vital to the future of our country...it is also a pleasure.
Yes, our right to vote is clear, but our responsibility to vote is much less clear, and in fact has lost its luster, in part because of the pathetic failure of our government educational system to teach basic civics and a sense of patriotism. And in large part because the vote has become trivial. Early voting, voting by mail, voting for non-citizens, registration for voting that has become a joke, and all of the other silliness that has made voting the equivalent of texting or popping a cup of soup into the microwave.
The importance of taking the vote seriously has been lost, and the gravity of voting in every election has been subsumed in a sea of complexity and confusing signals from all of our thousands of streams of information. Preprinted ballots flood our mailboxes, attack ads bombard us on every screen and billboard, and at least in my state, the candidates are carefully chosen by the power brokers of the state, rather than by the people. Yes, there was a primary, but the winners simply had more money, and more pull with the state political organizations.
The Democrat candidate for governor, Mikie Sherrill, is a backbencher without an original thought in her exam-cheating brain. But she was next in line, so she got the support. The Republican, Jack Ciattarelli, is a professional candidate who seems to be quite well aware of the direction of the wind, but less focused on any meaningful political philosophy other than "I want to be governor."
Luckily for Ciattarelli, the Democrats chose a clueless hack with skeletons in her closet, so he has a chance. Had they been smart, they would have supported my congressman, the execrable but intelligent Josh Gottheimer. He is a cutthroat and a sleaze, but he knows how to campaign.
But the real issue is that the People have allowed their glorious right to vote to be diluted by the actions of those they elected, and by their own actions of treating the vote as a triviality. An informed electorate is a terrifying force that no politician can resist. It sees through lies, and backroom deals, and almost always chooses the best of the lot. Is it perfect? No, of course not. Our history books are full of examples of seemingly excellent candidates becoming exactly what the People voted against!
There is no political system that can provide perfect candidates, so it is up to the voters to take seriously that most solemn and important right and duty. Voting Democrat "Because I have always voted Democrat" is a rule that instantly abrogates one's power as a citizen. Voting for the machine Republican, "Because I can't vote for the Democrat" may work in many cases, but it also yields horrendous results such as the RINOs that infest the halls of power in America. It instantly hands a huge amount of control to the parties that have proven throughout our history that they care not a whit about us, that the only motivating force is their acquisition of power.
Did I vote straight Republican? Yes, I did. I also voted against an increase in property taxes, and wrote in Daffy Duck for school board, instead of the corruptocrat who is running uncontested. Did I help to perpetuate the very system that I just decried? Possibly, but I read the candidates' platforms, and at least I made an informed decision.
Will it also bite me in the ass? Absolutely. I have no doubt that at least a few of the candidates will simply ignore what they ran on and do what is best for them and their power base.
Sunday Morning Book Thread - 11-02-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (make sure you are inoculated!). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...
So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, put down that Butterfinger, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
A week or so ago, I went up to the University of Missouri-St. Louis to attend an educational conference. Had a great time. While there, I stopped by the Mercantile Library in the basement of the TJ Library on campus. It's just a neat place. This time they had just opened up an art exhibit featuring works by St. Louis artist Frederick Oakes Sylvester. The picture above is of a display of books that's hard to describe. It's a semicircular cabinet with some books showing a cover here and there. Among the books featured above is Mark Twain's Sketches New and Old, a collection of his short stories. This appears to be a first edition copy.
ON THE DESTRUCTION OF FANTASY LITERATURE
This is one of those videos that leaves me scratching my head because I just don't understand the point she's trying to make here. According to the video, Hilary Layne's thesis is as follows:
We will never, ever see an epic fantasy novel that's as high quality as J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings because Lester del Rey, senior editor of fantasy at Ballantine Books, wanted to milk Tolkienesque fantasy to satiate his own greed.
Seriously. That's her thesis. She attempts to bolster her premise by pointing out that del Rey collaborated with Terry Brooks on Brooks' inaugural epic fantasy novel, The Sword of Shannara (which is pronounced "SHAN-ah-rah" and not "Shan-AR-ah" according to Brooks himself). Lester convinced Brooks to write an epic fantasy novel that was largely derivative of Lord of the Rings and was able to get it published. The book was an instant bestseller, selling over 125,000 copies during its first year and featuring prominently on the New York Times Bestseller list. Based on this success, Lester went on to develop a "formula" for epic fantasy to continue churning out more product and thus making more money. This formulaic writing corrupted fantasy literature forever.
What Hilary overlooks in her thesis are many other factors that were at play at the same time. Ballantine (Lester's employer) already owned the publication rights to Lord of the Rings and were selling more than a million copies a year by the mid-1970s, dwarfing the success of The Sword of Shannara by at least an order of magnitude. Sure, they wanted to sell more books, but Lord of the Rings was a pretty big cash cow all on its own. Lester's genius was in capitalizing on the success of Tolkien by encouraging other writers to tap into the "formula" he had developed. The job of senior editor at a major publisher is, in fact, to sell more books. Working with writers to improve their craft is important, but at the end of the day what matters is what the publisher can sell to their audience. Lester understood his audience and understood marketing far better than Hilary here.
What we actually see in epic fantasy is that for the more successful writers like Terry Brooks (Del Rey), Raymond E. Feist (Bantam Spectra), and Robert Jordan (Tor), is that the first book in their series conforms to Tolkienesque worldbuilding, but then subsequent books diverge tremendously after each author experienced initial success. Each of these authors crafted a world that is as rich, diverse, and interesting as Middle Earth through decades of worldbuilding on their own.
Of course, Tolkien himself was writing his story according to an ancient and time-honored formula: the Hero's Journey, as popularized by Joseph Campbell in Man of a Thousand Faces. Also known as the "Monomyth," the Hero's Journey is an archetypical story framework found in many epic sagas across time and space, as it shows up everywhere when you know what to look for. Modern epic fantasy authors rely on the Hero's Journey in their own stories because that's what sells and is what their audience expects.
As for writing formulaic stories, here's a newsflash. People LIKE formulaic writing, particularly in genre fiction. We like mysteries, westerns, romances, science fiction, and yes, even fantasy, BECAUSE we know what to expect (more or less) as each genre is defined by traditions and tropes that appeal to our tastes. Even literary fiction is constrained by conventions and formulas, as Dave Wolverton explains in his essay, "On Writing as a Fantasist."
Hilary's video is bizarre because it doesn't sound like she's read ANY epic fantasy fiction since Lord of the Rings. Certainly none of the contemporary fantasy literature of the 1970s. A lot of it is pretty good, even if no author ever approaches Tolkien's skill at writing. But then, seriously, who could? He brought an entire lifetime of knowledge, skills, and experiences that most writers will never, ever have to his storytelling. He dived deep into mythology, folklore, and languages to craft his world meticulously one word at a time. And he wasn't successful at first. It took time before he became the fantasy juggernaut we know and love (or loathe) today. He was unique, a paragon of his field. Might as well as why we don't have more Albert Einsteins lurking around.
Another point she overlooks is that readers who enjoyed The Sword of Shannara or similar works might be inspired to go and read the source material from which these books sprang. Thus, Lord of the Rings, which many people might have avoided because they thought it was too hard, now becomes desirable because of it's impact on other works. I'm doing that right now, as a matter of fact, if you look at the books I'm currently reading.
I read through many of the comments on this video to see how her viewers reacted. Most of them roasted her over the coals (metaphorically). Very few tried to defend her viewpoint and when they did, they tended to be roasted themselves. I've watched a few of her other videos where she seems to know something of the writing craft, but she flew very wide of the mark here, displaying a shocking lack of knowledge of fantasy literature in general.
Such a strange video....
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BOOKS BY MORON-ADJACENT AUTHORS
I'm filing this under "Moron-Adjacent Authors" because Buck Throckmorton asked me if I'd post something about the book below by Scott McKay, Senior Editor at The American Spectator. According to Buck, Scott is a fan of AoSHQ.
In a world where Hollywood's woke agenda threatens to drown out truth, one man - armed with some very well-heeled friends - dares to fight back.
Blockbusters follows Mike Holman, a retired journalist turned cultural crusader, as he partners with billionaire Pierce Polk to dismantle the Big Five media giants. With a billion-dollar budget and a vision to revive traditional values, Mike launches Blockbusters Media, sparking a media revolution that crashes Wall Street and captivates the nation.
From a near-miss of personal destruction to a series of Wall Street hostile takeover fights to a billion-dollar Christian epic, film, the stakes soar--personally and politically--as Mike balances love, family, and a pregnant wife against ruthless enemies and a shifting cultural landscape.
Set against the backdrop of a new anti-woke presidency, this fast-paced thriller blends action, satire, and heart, exploring the power of stories to shape society. Perfect for fans of political intrigue and cultural commentary, Blockbusters delivers a bold, unapologetic narrative that's as entertaining as it is thought-provoking.
If, as one of the morons recommended, you do read Around the World in Eighty Days, I suggest you chase it with The Other Log of Phileas Fogg by Philip Jose Farmer. It is a steampunkish science fiction novel written around the concept that the Jules Verne novel is a recounting of actual events...but it is a cover story meant to conceal what truly happened (a conflict of epic proportions with the fate of the world hanging in the balance). The Other Log of Phileas Fogg is presented as the true story that happened behind and between the scenes of the Verne novel. It's a rip snorting adventure and I loved it when it was published in 1973.
Posted by: Danfan at October 26, 2025 09:33 AM (jEQcb)
Comment: Interesting premise. I might have to check that out. I like the idea of stories-behind-the-story in fiction. It turns out this book is part of a larger universe that connects Sherlock Holmes, Flash Gordon, James Bond, and Jack the Ripper--the Wold Newton 'verse.
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Finished The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry.
It is not just about the Influenza, but about the medical efforts to stop it, how cities and towns in America almost crumbled under the large number of deaths, and bad governance. President Wilson and his total indifference to the epidemic is highlighted.
I liked the biochemistry asides and the attitude of the leading medical establishment of the time.
We are survivors of the COVID-19 Wuhan epidemic. IMHO, the recent results were made worse by so called experts of today, misleading the lessons from the past.
The one measure that worked was total isolation.
This is an illuminating cautionary tale. I recommend it.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 26, 2025 09:37 AM (u82oZ)
Comment: So much can be learned from the lessons of the past. It's a shame that people--particularly those with power and influence--choose to ignore those lessons in favor of their own greed and ambition for more power.
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In traditional novel-reading, I'm cruising through the old Dragonlance novel Dragons of Winter Night. I'm enjoying it, though there is a story tic or two that I find annoying. Namely, the book has a habit of picking up a narrative after time-skipping over a quest.
The book is a sequel (book 2 of 3) and the story picks up in the aftermath of a major quest...but not the quest that ended book 1. I had to stop reading and make sure I was reading the series in the proper order. But, I was, there was just a quest that happened off-screen. Pity, I might have wanted to read that.... Then within the book itself, the cast gets split in half, and we follow one half for a while. Eventually we jump back to the other set of characters, as they are dealing with the aftermath of another major quest that we didn't get to see!
Not something that makes me put down the book, but enough to make me grunt in exasperation while reading.
Posted by: Castle Guy at October 26, 2025 10:21 AM (Lhaco)
Comment: The time skips in Dragons of Winter Night were off-putting to me the first time I read them as well. The book starts with the characters celebrating the return of an ancient dwarven hammer, but we never see that quest. We have to wait until Dragons of the Dwarven Depths - The Lost Chronicles Volume 1 before we see how that quest plays out. The time skip in the middle of the novel is equally confusing. We don't see the events of that quest until Mary Kirchoff's short story "Finding the Faith" in Dragonlance Tales Volume 1 - The Magic of Krynn. Although the story still progresses, the reader does feel like they've missed out on key events when they are left out of the main narrative.
Last week I tried something new, attempting to drag this blog kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. A few of you seemed to like it, so let's keep doing it!
Huh. Drop downs. I never saw that on this bunker-oil fueled website before. Neat.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at October 26, 2025 09:31 AM (BI5O2)
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October has been recommended several times around here. Thanks to popular demand, it's been reprinted, so it's now affordable. It's a nice little Halloween story. The narrator is a guard dog named Snuff, an animal companion to "Jack" (implied to be Jack the Ripper). The two of them are cursed with being "closers" at a dark ritual that takes place when the moon is full on Halloween night. They collaborate with other closers and work against "openers." However, the players in the Game change from time to time, so allegiances are fluid. It's quite a fun ride to see the world through Snuff's eyes and nose as he navigates the perilous Game in which he and his fellow animal companions are trapped. Weirdly, I kept having flashbacks to the movie Cabin in the Woods as there is a similar vibe to the story.
Hell House by Richard Matheson
This is the first Richard Matheson books I've read, though I'm familiar with a few of his other works such as I Am Legend and A Stir of Echoes (both of which were made into movies). Hell House is a troperiffic haunted house novel. It has everything you want in this type of story: skeptical paranormal investigators, psychic sensitives, and a reclusive wealthy financier backing the investigation into the mysteries of a house that has claimed the lives and sanity of so many. Good stuff if you enjoy that sort of thing. Certainly inspired its share of imitators even as it draws upon ghost stories from the past.
Dracula and Other Horror Stories by Bram Stoker
Why didn't you guys tell me Dracula was so good? Oh, wait a minute...you did...repeatedly...as recently as last week...moving on.
It's an odd experience reading this book because even though I've never read it before, I feel like I have. That's because I've seen so many adaptations and retellings in books and films and television that it's been dissected and turned inside out countless times. I do gain an appreciation for the original story, as I can see its cultural impact *everywhere.* Great stuff. Highly recommended.
Huh. This is apparently a thing that exists. It's a tiny handheld gaming device, the size and colour of a Post-It note, with specs to match the original Nintendo Game Boy from 1989.
Which is... Fine. It costs $229 and has not exactly set the world on fire, but keep trucking along, dudes.
Nobody posts on Bluesky but that's a separate problem.
The company explained the changes are designed to make Bluesky a place for more "fun, genuine, and respectful exchanges" - an edict that follows a month of unrest on the platform as some users again criticized the platform over its moderation decisions.
Edict? Do you know what that word means?
Anyway, the only people more delusional than the Tech Crunch reporter here trying to fluff month-dead roadkill and the Bluesky executives pretending their company isn't month-dead roadkill are Bluesky's dozen or so actual users who insist that the company should ban people who don't break the rules, to save them the trouble of constructing their own echo chambers:
Bluesky, however, wants to focus more on the tools it provides users to control their own experience.Today, this includes things like moderation lists that let users quickly block a group of people they don't want to interact with, content filter controls, muted words, and the ability to subscribe to other moderation service providers.
The problem is that all this engineering effort is going to make sure that none of their users ever have to see outside their bubbles.
Saturday Night "Club ONT" November 1, 2025 [The 3 Ds]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to Club ONT! A collaboration the 3D's - The Disco, The Dino, and The Doggo. Welcome to November. The mercury is falling and so are standards. Morons are digging through closets and dresser drawers - finding some questionable fashion choices of years past.
Playing card cocktail. Number 7 of of 54. Yup, there are Jokers in the deck!
A drink with nothing but liquor. What could go wrong?
What are YOU drinking tonight?
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Club ONT Auto Repair Department
If you left your vehicle with the Club ONT Auto Repair Department and are here to complain about the delay in its return, please be assured that our highly skilled technicians are working tirelessly to take care of your vehicle. They are very busy doing many things. Your satisfaction is our highest priority. Thank you.
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Club ONT Psychic
Careful, Archimedes mind reading is working, but it is still in Beta Testing.
Skip the morality words in the preamble of the article and scroll down to interesting reading.
Conventional circuit boards pass electrical signals through conductive metal traces, which are bonded to a rigid board commonly made of fiberglass and resin. In contrast, the new material is a soft and stretchable composite made from a recyclable polymer infused with microscopic droplets of a liquid metal alloy based on gallium. A circuit can be created on this composite by lightly scoring a pattern into its surface, which connects adjacent embedded droplets and allows electricity to flow. The rest of the material remains electrically insulating.
“It had no choice. Their defense grid was smashed. We’d won. Taking out Connor then would make no difference. SkyNet had to wipe out his entire existence!”
– Kyle Reese
Thankfully for those who still wish to enjoy the taste of these drinks without any of the negative effects, a wide variety of options are available, including decaffeinated coffees and teas and non-alcoholic wines and beers – many of which are virtually indistinguishable from their more psychoactive counterparts. But how are these remarkable beverages produced? How do manufacturers remove one of their most fundamental components while leaving the taste largely unchanged? Well, pour yourself a hot – or cold – one as we dive into the fascinating history and chemistry of caffeine and alcohol-free drinks.
Longish read - some moments of interest.
Related:
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The lighter may be dead but the resourcefulness is not.
Obama hosts members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that promotes Islamist extremism and has ties to Hamas. The Muslim Brotherhood is a designated terrorist organization by nearly a dozen nations.
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Club ONT Security Arrangements
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Club ONT Music
So there's a new biopic out now about Bruce Springsteen. Trailer here if you're interested.
The 3 Ds are in agreement that this is the preferred way to respond to any mention of The so-called Boss
[Disco says: Yes, that's a real urinal! A company in my neck of the woods did an outstanding job turning an empty keg into a urinal. This one is on display at the local brewery where I host a monthly Classic Rock Trivia event.]
Now if we could just get them to add in a way to require tokens, these babies would be installed here at the Club!
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Now we activate the Club jukebox
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Top 10ish Comments of the Week
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Club ONT was brought to you by intergalactic diplomacy:
If you try to knock me, you'll get mocked
I'll stir fry you in my wok
Your knees'll start shaking and your fingers pop
Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock
*****
NOTICE: In recognition of your continued patronage, Club ONT is pleased to provide an extra hour of Club ONT activity for your enjoyment this evening. Last call time has been adjusted accordingly. Please be nice to the staff. We've paid them extra in the form of left over Snickers and Butterfingers from trick or treating, but they may be a little grumpy with the extended shift.
Mario Bava is as emblematic of Italian cinema as Federico Fellini, Vittorio di Sica, or Roberto Rossellini. Moreso, perhaps. His dreamlike visions of gothic horror, that which he's known best for, is part of a package that includes spaghetti westerns (The Road to Fort Alamo and Jay Colt and Winchester Jack), Giallo horror (The Girl Who Knew Too Much and Blood and Black Lace), and sword and sandal epics (Erik the Conqueror and Knives of the Avenger), all popular genres in Italy that sold as well, if not better, than the more high brow counterparts and contemporaries aforementioned.
But he's not taken seriously because he worked in genre, which the critical crowd long held as impersonal and beneath serious consideration. That's changed recently (a positive change in the critical community matched by a host of negative things that far outweigh it), so it makes me wonder what would Bava's career had been if he had made Black Sunday or Kill, Baby, Kill in 2015 rather than the 60s and 70s.
The story of Bava's career is far from smooth, though. Working in the Italian film industry, looking to entertain and without some kind of cult following of investors willing to throw a million dollars at him just to make anything, he was constantly working with independent producers, trying to get anything off the ground. That's what really created his varied filmography of different genres, a good bit of which were chasing trends rather than trying to create them. Still, when Bava worked...he worked.
Style over substance is typically viewed as a bad thing, an empty exercise is formalism without anything to say about the human condition in order to connect with audiences. However, I do think that it can mesh well and create really entertaining packages that Bava exemplifies.
Take his first film, Black Sunday. A black and white gothic horror piece, it's a very simple story of a witch, trapped by magic (or something), broken free by modern men in the late 19th century and then goes on a terror rampage in the vaguely Eastern European backdrop. Characterization is thin, and the plot is barely existent, but it's a really fun ride in large part because the storytelling is so wane. This gives Bava plenty of space and a simple palate on which to paint his gothic horrors. This gives him time to use images to actually heighten the simple storytelling, creating implicit thematic meaning through explicit imagery that no one actually talks about. It becomes a heavily Christian film about the power of the Christian belief over evil, and it's in large part because Bava has the time and space to use imagery to help imbue meaning.
I'm not here to imply or explain that that's how all of his films work, or even all of his best films, but there is something to embracing stylistic excess that can lead to increased meaning. I mean...I don't think there's anything like that in Blood and Black Lace, but it does heighten the realities of movies like The Whip and the Body and Planet of the Vampires, creating moods and atmospheres that become compelling on their own. I mean, the smoke-filled dreamlike realities of the sadomasochist nightmare that is The Whip and the Body and the Technicolor alien landscapes of Planet of the Vampires are just fascinating to look at, even if the actual stories are threadbare. That's a specific skill that Bava brings to the table, and it's his strongest attribute. However, like many directors, he had weaknesses.
Narrative
Holding together the needs of a film production in one's head is not a small task. You write down everything you can and you delegate to department heads to handle much of the work, but holding a vision in one's head to provide orders to writers, set designers, cinematographers, and actors all while fighting off producers is difficult. Combine that with the normal hectic nature of a film set where things constantly change because locations become unavailable, planned shots can't be executed, actors resist direction, and lights blow out, and the director must keep the production moving forward, all while having to pivot and improvise doesn't undermine the basic ideas of the script. Assuming the script is worthwhile at all. Which is to say that the toolbox a director needs to master is very large and very difficult to master.
Having the skillset to manage all of that is rare. Most directors are workman who can find perfectly acceptable solutions to these kinds of problems, but rely on the script to support them. Bava was seemingly like that, I think, with the added benefit of being visually stylish. He had writing credits on most of his films, but never sole writing credit, the credit he did receive being usually one of at least three, sometimes as many as six total writers. And the writing quality varied greatly, but the key for Bava was matching his stylistic approach with the right kind of script: spare horror, mostly.
The real problem came when he was matched with the rising popularity of Giallo cinema. Largely started by Bava's own The Girl Who Knew Too Much (retitled The Evil Eye in its American release), the genre grew to develop its own conventions without him, largely dictated by other Italian filmmakers like Dario Argento, and they were almost all whodunit proto-slashers that relied on investigation, larger casts of characters, and playing coy with the audience (often by outright lying to them about the secret identity of the killer). This sort of complexity was something that Bava seems to have had real trouble matching with his dreamlike stylings, so he could create works of deep frustration like Blood and Black Lace or Five Dolls in August or Hatchet for the Honeymoon that simply don't connect like they should because he doesn't have the space to play stylistically because he has to dedicate so much time to movements of plot and keeping track of large casts of characters, some of whom could be the real killer.
The Hunt for the Genre Killer
Bava is really known for his early career, dominated by gothic horror, and his later career which includes his most obviously influential film, A Bay of Blood, which is a massive inspiration for the Friday the 13th franchise and American slashers in general. However, its his middle period, from about 1964 to 1970, that I find the most interesting but deeply frustrating. It's where he became lost in the search for box office success by mimicking other people.
The big signal is the spaghetti westerns, The Road to Fort Alamo and Roy Colt and Winchester Jack. The first is a largely dull and uninteresting entry in the genre, made in the same year that Sergio Leone made A Fistful of Dollars, but the second is perhaps more interesting. Roy Colt and Winchester Jack was Bava taking on the assignment of a film and deciding to purposefully make a hash of it by turning it into a comedy. He made three comedies in his career (Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl-Bombs and Four Times That Night are the other two), and only one of them is anything close to good (the last, which is like Rashomon while considering a failed one-night stand). Roy Colt is deeply unfunny and frustrating as it navigates the conventions of the spaghetti western, which I found to be a very interesting choice. It was obvious that Bava was allowed to just make whatever he wanted, and instead of pushing the film towards his obvious natural inclinations like turning it into a gothic horror western (which would have been awesome, possibly), he went the "easy" route and tried to turn it into a comedy. I say easy because directing actors to be silly is less demanding financially than building and lighting sets to accommodate the needs of something like gothic horror.
This is also the period where he was most obviously chasing the runaway success of the Giallo genre. Giallo means yellow in Italian, and it refers to the yellow binding on cheap pulp novels, most of which were horror, that animated Italian pop culture for a time and influenced the genre. The conventions ended up being mysteries about a killer, usually of women, the killer typically being dominantly portrayed as a pair of gloved hands holding some kind of weapon like scissors for most of the runtime while a policeman or often an American actor playing a writer or something would pair up with a young woman to investigate, eventually finding the killer to have some kind of perverted motive. As I previously indicated, Bava's talents did not lend themselves to this kind of complicated storytelling, so we end up with damp squibs of films like Five Dolls for an August Moon.
Late Stage and an Early Death
My favorite Bava film (this is very much an unpopular opinion, by the way, its IMDB rating is in the low 6's) is Shock, his last filmed project (Kidnapped was filmed before but released in one form about fifteen years after Bava's death). And it represents what I think could have been his evolution into a new era where the gothic horror didn't sell. It's set in modern day, about a woman with a new husband and a child from her first marriage. There's a haunting, potential possession, and lots of creepy imagery that reminded me, in particular, of the creepy visuals from John Carpenter in Prince of Darkness.
And I think it works because the narrative is very spare, giving Bava time to dwell on the eerie. There's little to no plot as the mother tries to figure out why her kid is being so creepy (yeah, it is one of those movies), and things just get weirder, lines between reality and her nightmares blending the more the film goes on. It's the kind of narrative structure that Bava needed to flex his stylistic skills even if removed from the obvious original visual space of gothic horror.
It was obvious that the money side of things was becoming extremely difficult, though. That movie Kidnapped that he didn't get to finish and was only released fifteen years after his death? He'd filmed, reportedly, about 99% of it, missing only some inserts to tie scenes together, when the producer went bankrupt and took the print away from Bava so he couldn't finish it. Bava's son, Lambardo, eventually put together a cut that is probably pretty close to what Mario intended, and Mario died in 1980 of a heart attack at 60.
He'd spent twenty years in the film industry before he ever directed Black Sunday in 1960. He was an uncredited title designer on Scipione l'africano in 1938, working his way through assistant cameraman on projects to cinematographer for people like Rossellini on a couple of his short films, eventually becoming an assistant director in the late 50s, even completing projects for people like Riccardo Freda, and finally getting his shot at directing which he blew out of the gate with Black Sunday in stylish fashion.
He probably made films in the wrong era, but when he worked, he was cookin'. His stylish features like Black Sunday, The Whip and the Body, Planet of the Vampires, and Kill, Baby, Kill match with less obviously Bava-esque successes like Four Times that Night and Knives of the Avenger (Shane but with Vikings) to create an interesting, worthwhile body of work that may be uneven (Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl-Bombs is...not good) but has real gems within.
The Ultimate Bava
I am always on the search for the film that can define a filmmaker in microcosm. Usually it's some kind of example of their unique traits in the most obvious form (North by Northwest for Hitchcock or Gremlins 2 for Joe Dante) or the culmination of his talents in the most unified form (The Age of Innocence for Scorsese).
With Bava, I could go in two directions. There are the films that are most thoroughly and distinctly his, that most encompass his cinematic style. Films like Black Sabbath or Kill, Baby, Kill, filled with horror, the macabre, and Technicolor visuals.
However, I end up trending towards another film: Danger: Diabolik. I think of it because it feels like the perfect encapsulation of both the stylistic highs that Bava reached for but also the narrative struggle lows that hit him time and time again. It's essentially two films in one. The first focuses on the eponymous Diabolik, the master criminal, and his girlfriend Eva, and it's all dreamy looks at Mod-esque attitudes and ornate set design that is just weirdly compelling to watch. The second is this slapdash of a host of revolving door characters, almost all policemen, who are trying to come up with ways to catch the criminal which is deeply frustrating and not all that entertaining.
Is there a better microcosm of Bava overall? I don't think so. Danger: Diabolik is definitely not his best film, but it is the one that most fully defines him, I think. I'd sooner watch Planet of the Vampires, though.
Knives of the Avenger (Rating 3/4) Full Review "IHonestly, it feels like he's growing as an artist, which is a very nice thing to see." [Library]
Kill Baby, Kill (Rating 3/4) Full Review "It's a stylistic flex on his part, throwing as much fog and shadow and color into frame to make every moment interesting." [Personal Collection]
Four Times that Night (Rating 3/4) Full Review "Something of a small gem in Bava's career, all the more noteworthy for its differences from his more well-known work." [Library]
A Bay of Blood (Rating 2.5/4) Full Review "However, I end up enjoying the film a decent bit simply because Bava tries so hard. I really wouldn't call it good, but it's a fine, thing, stylish entertainment." [Amazon Prime]
Baron Blood (Rating 2/4) Full Review "I'm far from hating the film, but this is less than what I had hoped it would be. It's...fine. Not terribly engaging, but with moments of fun." [Amazon Prime]
Lisa and the Devil (Rating 2.5/4) Full Review "It's not some great piece of horror cinema, but it's solidly entertaining and showing that Bava could disappear a bit into gothic horror, subsuming his more outrageous stylistic flourishes in favor of a more muted visual tone. I'm kind of glad that Bava didn't rewrite it, is all." [Kanopy]
Shock (Rating 3.5/4) Full Review "I don't know if he would have been able to replicate the quality here, but I think it's evidence that he wasn't done yet." [YouTube]
Contact
Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.
I've also archived all the old posts here, by request. I'll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ.
My next post will be on 11/22, and it will be about the directing career of Alexander Mackendrick.
In addition, I have started a YouTube channel. Please be so kind as to watch and subscribe here.
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. A spin of the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) landed on online or video gaming.
Are you thinking "I don't even know what that means and I'm not wise in the ways of computer games but I'm eager to learn more. I can't wait to get into the content!" I knew it. Enjoy.
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Pants are optional. Puns are welcome and encouraged.
Play nice. Don't be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
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Remember Pong? Computer games, online multiplayer games, and video games have all gotten much more sophisticated since the days of Pong. Are you wise in the ways of gaming?
TRex has short arms and a small brain, so I have little knowledge on this subject. I have a vague memory of Centipede, Galaga, Dig Dug, Pac Man and Outrun. If we're really ambitious, maybe we can talk Space Invaders and Donkey Kong. Fortunately, we have content from a guest blogger to help with the task at hand.
Are you wise in the ways of video games? Do you play solo or multi-player games? Do you have memories of pumping quarters at the video arcade?
Inspector Cussword asked for Hobby Thread space to talk about one corner of this big world. Feel free to comment on the content or pivot elsewhere for your hobbying commentary.
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Today I'm going to talk about Massively Multiplayer Online games without the Role Playing element.
Specifically, tanks. Yes, tanks. And planes. And warships. Big ones. From WWII and later.
In January 2010, World of Tanks began their Russian closed beta test. This game is the first of the now-quite large market of WWII/Korean War lobby games.
The Belorussian developer, Wargaming, opened up the US beta test in July 2010.
In 2013, World of Tanks income exceeded that of World of Warcraft, earning the developers $372 million dollars - for a free to play game.
So what is it? It is a game of 2 sides where people line up with various tanks of various countries from WWII thru the Cold War, and shoot each other on different maps, capturing control points, and blowing the shit out of each other.
Each country's tank lines are distributed amongst "tiers" so that matchmaking can generally put people in roughly equivalent power ratings in matches. The matches last 15 minutes, just perfect for a bit of fun then log off. Furthermore, in WoT the war machines are divided further between Heavy, Medium, and Light tanks; Tank Destroyers (limited armor/aiming but higher concealability and heavier guns); and Self-Propelled Guns (artillery).
As I mentioned, World of Tanks is free to play. It does have a "premium time" catch where if you want to swiftly progress, you really should get premium time (subscription equivalent) which costs about 13 bucks or so for a month of time. It doubles your xp and credits. But you can have a great time playing free - it's not specifically required.
There are actually more of these types of games from two other developers. After seeing the success of the model, Gaijin Entertainment (a now-Hungarian company. Exited Russia after the invasion of Ukraine); decided to jump in with War Thunder (free to download on Steam or from their link here, with clients for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux). Gaijin had plentiful experience with combat flight sims in IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey (released in the US as "Wings of Prey", available on Steam for 20 bucks) (If you want free stuff on a new account, I'd recommend using this link as it gives you a couple of vehicles and some money.)
War Thunder began as "World of Planes," centered around 1930's aircraft thru the Korean War, but during development in 2012 decided on changing the name to War Thunder to keep from being confused with Wargaming's then-upcoming "World of Warplanes." Also, Gaijin decided on their main feature - War Thunder would have different vehicle types on the same map.
Have a trailer:
The first version of War Thunder was solely based on aircraft in three different play styles - Arcade, Realistic, and Simulator with increasing levels of realism and difficulty in the flight models and restricted national plane selection based on maps. Arcade is a forgiving flight model and has mixes of any nation's planes, based on Battle Rating (similar to tiers, but more granular).
Realistic has - yeah, realistic flight models (wings rip off in dives, compression can lock control surfaces, and the ever-fun "pilot blacks out because he shits his lungs out due to taking 9 g's"). Realistic has nation versus nation, so you can't fly a Mustang against a P-38 unless you have a captured one and you're playing as a German.
Simulator is even more restricted, more fragile control surfaces, engine overheating with historical performance ratings based on altitude, and you are stuck inside the cockpit - no 3rd person view.
I'm sure you're wondering - is it fun? Yes. The planes range from biplanes and 1932 era Peashooters to Gulf War jets and everything in between. There are fighters, heavy fighters, ground attack aircraft, and bombers. It also is "freemium" based, but it also has one more (excellent) feature:
It includes tanks on the same map.
Yes, they added ground forces to the game in 2014 and now you can grind up tiers of tanks while being bombed by assholes flying Stukas. You can also be an asshole with an Anti-Aircraft armored vehicle and shoot plane assholes out of the sky. If you get a lot of points/kills, you can drop a nuke and end the match.
Plus, the maps have weather effects (rain) and different times of day so sometimes you have the sun in your eyes while being shot by Stukas and rammed by Tigers.
There is also Naval, ranging from Torpedo Boats to Battleships. I'm not any good at those so I don't play them, but you can also use dive bombers and torpedo bombers on the same map as the ships.
Only some maps are combined forces but it is available in Arcade as well as Realistic, so even if you're just starting out, you can enjoy jumping into a plane and bombing your enemies while they light your tank on fire.
Compared to World of Tanks, the War Thunder tank game is much more gritty - you are locked to a very close view above your cupola and the maps are realistically detailed. The World of Tanks maps feel a little too clean, a bit too pristine in comparison to the rutted, muddy, messy, and realistic War Thunder maps. The ground isn't perfectly smooth, it had bumps, rocks, ruts, logs, and crap all over. You aren't removed from your tank, you're right there and it feels HUGE. The WoT tanks feel like toys compared to the War Thunder tanks. Both games are fun, free, and offer completely different experiences, packed into 15 to 20 minute matches.
Wargaming (World of Tanks) has to date come out with 2 other lobby games, all three separate - World of Tanks, Warplanes, and World of Warships.
The Warplanes game failed horribly, the controls were poorly written for mouse and keyboard and the flight models just weren't right. The maps were uninspired, combat was not very well paced, and the population never came to the game. I couldn't find a trailer that didn't have pre-rendered, false gameplay.
World of Warships is very popular (you can download and play here) and is pretty fun. The sizes of the ships versus the sizes of the islands and buildings is a bit wonky, but the shooty is fun..
The combat in WoWS is very satisfying, the sound work is excellent. You have Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships, and Aircraft Carriers - divided like in Wot, by tiers. (I even hear there might be subs.)
All of these games I enjoy due to the lowered need of participation - it's great in bite-sized chunks to get on, shoot tanks/aircraft/ships, then log off in 15 minutes or a half hour. The models are great in all the games and provide a lot of interesting historical tidbits, plus you shoot guns with barrels big enough to shove your leg inside.
The "World Of..." games are all hitpoint based, pretty simple to get into. War Thunder is module based - you see your shot (for example) richochet off the commander's hatch, splinter and spall fragments, that slice through your entire crew and detonate your overfull ammo rack.
I prefer the more graphic, hideous death of War Thunder. Plus, the planes are just better.
Thanks to Hrothgar and Sharon (willow's apprentice) for the TRex halloween pics!
We saw lots of dino decorations for Halloween this year! The Hobby Thread applauds the showing of good taste and enthusiasm.
Iris sent this photo of a "dinosaur cakelette pan." I don't know what a "cakelette" is but I like cake and "cakelette" sounds pretty close. Thanks! Does anyone make "cakelettes," either dino shaped or otherwise?
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did a travel theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
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Notable comments from last week:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, contribute something from your personal hobbying. We will feature a different theme next time. What are you hobbying? We love showing off Horde hobbying. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.
A photo of our mystery PetMoron attendee at the Texas MoMe, checking out the crowd:
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First Dog I Ever Rescued
Dear K.T.,
This guy showed up at the garbage cans by the highway the week before Christmas last year. He followed me home & adopted us.
He was skin & bones, filthy, and full of fleas, ticks & heart worms. I called him Zeke and he was just so grateful for any kindness. After 10 months of good food & lots of love, he’s now 90 lbs. of muscle . . .
He looks great after your TLC!
We think he is an Anatolian Shepherd - Lab mix. Here he is with my Golden, Maggie.
Those two look like great friends. Maggie is lovely. Zeke looks big next to her.
You just never know what might show up on your doorstep one day.
Regards,
Dino58
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So my brother completed the shelter for our adopted stray, Sammy, last weekend. Then the damned cat disappeared on Monday. Four days, and we feared the worst. Purry was so glad "that guy" wasn't around anymore. I think Della missed him staring at her through the sliding glass door.
Then this afternoon (Friday) he showed up ravenous. Maybe he was locked in a shed or garage, but we're convinced it's a Halloween miracle!
I don't know if you can see that inside of the styrofoam, there's a sherpa-lined cat cube.
Miley
Looks very cozy.
What experience has The Horde had with kitty shelters?
Here's the photo of Della (on the chair) and Sammy from last week. Evidence of a black cat Halloween miracle when Sammy returned!
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Was taking care of the grandkids and dogs. We were raking leaves into a pile for some fun. Turned around and the 2 dogs had set themselves up for a perfect photo. Duck is the Rottweiler x mastiff and Bruce is the Golden Retriever.
I love this site and particularly the Saturday afternoon pet thread.
Sue
Duck and Bruce were having a great time! Bet the grandkids enjoyed watching them, too! Thanks for sharing such a fun time with us!
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Thank you for sharing your pets and animal photos and stories with us today.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
Helianthus maximiliani reached eight feet, both vertically and horizontally. I’ll need to stake it more strongly next year.
I haven't been paying enough attention to the posts of Don in Kansas, and his Soggy Times (which at least were posted in October) have some great photos, going back into summer.
Usually during Kansas summers the problem in the garden is not enough water. Once in a while we get a wet summer, though, and this year’s has been the wettest I can remember. We got heavy rain nearly every week, often three or five inches at a time. It’s still happening; it’s only Tuesday, and already this week an inch and three-quarters has fallen. The problem is compounded by topography. I live in one of the flattest areas of one of the flattest states, and there’s very little slope in my yard. Insufficient moisture can be remedied with a hose, but a surplus is not so easily dealt with. Some of the plants in my garden like all the water, as do weeds and mosquitoes. Others don’t. I’ve been experimenting with dryland plants, which often do well out in the prairie, and everything looked happy and vigorous back in June. But the rains never stopped, and I’ve lost a number of species I had high hopes for.
For those interested in Penstemons: species native to Kansas did fine with all the rain. P. strictus and P. barbatus also look healthy despite the downpours. I’ll have to wait and see on the others.
Below, a few snapshots from summer. More at the link above.
Also check out Don's recent Tunes of the Day and ghost story (sort of). He has good taste.
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Edible Gardening/Putting Things By
From By-Tor:
I found a Key Lime tree, known as Mexican lime tree in California, at work, that had dropped a grocery bag worth of fruit on the ground.
Fifteen minutes of squeezing yielded a full quart of fresh lime juice.
Good for Key Lime pies, obviously, but also marinating meat, putting in drinks( ginger ale and 7-Up for me) and making limeade.
I’m thinking with an acid content of 5% it should stay good in the fridge for awhile.
Anybody have a favorite recipe for Key Lime Pie? Another favorite Key Lime recipe?
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For some of those with a winter growing season (check locally), Spinach 'Monstreux de Viroflay' (Baker Creek). A cool season crop elsewhere, too.
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Ah, Nature
A tiny friend:
More of a Spring picture than a Fall one but I keep forgetting to send it. For size reference, that's jeans denim weave.
Oddbob
Could be laying eggs in our stucco by this time of year.
Adventure
Friends saw mountain goats while hiking in the Superstition Mountains.
Elsewhere in Arizona:
Aspens in Flagstaff, Kim Koubek
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Gardens of The Horde
Hi K.T. -
I'm ready to turn the calendar page to November, but my climbing roses are still putting out buds and blossoms like it's summertime. Even the "pinkie winkie" hydrangea blooms continue to hang on and provide a nice pop of color for the garden.
Cheers,
The Pilot
Love those late flowers!
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Hi KT,
Hope you are both as good as God can make you!
Attached is a dewy spider web looking all sparkly in the loofah patch (one is ripening on the left).
Miley
Thanks.
The spiders have done art!
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Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:
ktinthegarden at g mail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
Teddy Roosevelt was one of the more interesting of our past presidents. A friend on social media recently posted a short video suggesting that he was insane. From his beginnings as a sickly, asthmatic child, he certainly endured many hardships and tragedies and had many adventures.
The Instapundit summary has some interesting details but the link to the speech has gone bad. I found another one. This speech was also given in Norway, but in person by Roosevelt.
We must ever bear in mind that the great end in view is righteousness, justice as between man and man, nation and nation, the chance to lead our lives on a somewhat higher level, with a broader spirit of brotherly goodwill one for another.
Peace is generally good in itself, but it is never the highest good unless it comes as the handmaid of righteousness; and it becomes a very evil thing if it serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth, or as an instrument to further the ends of despotism or anarchy.
We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life, but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary. No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong. No nation deserves to exist if it permits itself to lose the stern and virile virtues; and this without regard to whether the loss is due to the growth of a heartless and all-absorbing commercialism, to prolonged indulgence in luxury and soft, effortless ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted sentimentality.
Moreover, and above all, let us remember that words count only when they give expression to deeds, or are to be translated into them. The leaders of the Red Terror2 prattled of peace while they steeped their hands in the blood of the innocent; and many a tyrant has called it peace when he has scourged honest protest into silence. Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right direction.
Nicely free from utopianism, I think. Insane?
Heroes, Villains and Demons
Some people think of Teddy Roosevelt as a hero. Some think of him as a militaristic villain. And we have just been through the Halloween season of demons, echoing last week's discussion of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, which discusses the ways demons can encourage people and even nations to take enticing, but stupid, paths.
Following, some updates:
Last week we discussed how Marxism led to a repressive form of feminism in Russia, leading to a backlash when Putin appeared on his horse, baring his chest, appearing to be a competent man. The early adoption of abortion as birth control became restrictions on abortion as the government desire for more children increased.
SAD, BUT HARDLY UNIQUE TO RUSSIA — PUTIN’S STUPID WAR JUST SPED THINGS UP: After the Purges and the Wars: Why Russia Keeps Running Out of Tomorrow. “Slogans can’t hide the hard truth: Too many people have died, too many women have left, and too few believe the future is worth having children for.”
*
From our own feminist wars:
If you want to have your mind blown, this character was written as someone for the viewer to hate.
261 Lewis helped me remake myself. My fav is The Inner Ring:
"Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things."
I'm expect most of you, being so Good and Wise have read it. Like Chesterton's Fence, it's a must read. But it was so influential in making me a better person that I feel obligated to link to it, just in case someone missed it.
https://tinyurl.com/msj6ydjz
Posted by Fen
Lewis discusses the perils of being associated with demons. Meaty stuff about the "inner ring" later.
*
Thanks KT… the reference to CS Lewis and exquisitely tailored suits reminds me of his book That Hideous Strength… in that book the evil doers were part of the ultimate bureaucracy N.I.C.E. which is populated with polite nicely tailored bureaucrats… but demons are behind the whole enterprise
Lots going on this Halloween week, but hands down the number one story in the world of memes is the trick that Zohran Mamdani is about to play on New York City. Suffice it to say that memesters are not happy about it. Nor are they happy about the continuing Schumer Shutdown, while at the same time they seem to have mixed feelings about the impending loss of food stamps by 8% of the American population. And President Trump’s renovation of the East Wing is still prompting some meme amusement.
The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
*****
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Darboy)
1)This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice until the water cannons come out.
3) No running, jogging, sprinting and/or dashing with sharp objects.
4) Have a wonderful weekend!!!
5) And don't forget to fall back with the end of Daylight Savings.
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
9/11 – D sent an update for Susan, his wife, and her battle with cancer: Thank you, everyone, again for your prayers for Susan. Her cancer markers went down at the last Dr visit, but she is back to having abdominal pain that is making it hard to eat right. They are trying to get her weight up and thank God for the good days they do have. The really good news is that she is able to walk around again without the fear of falling over.
9/23 Update – The pain has started coming back, so they went to the hospital and found a cyst. They are trying to determine if it is infected.
10/16 Update – Susan was hospitalized for 3 weeks. They removed the cyst and her gallbladder. The chemo continues; it’s rough so far, but the cancer only grown 1 mm, so it seems to be working. Thank you to everyone for their prayers.
9/28 - Teresa in Fort Worth gave an update: It has been 1 year since Teresa started “down the cancer rabbit hole”. She sends her thanks for the prayers as they have buoyed her and her family through this year. She has been blessed to exceed the original 6-12 months predicted, by the grace of God – and the prayers of many people. Her next CT scan is in November, and the surgeon is pretty sure that her tumors will be small enough to remove/destroy.
10/7 Update – A recent CT scan shows lots of calcification (indicating tumor cell death), and the oncologist didn’t see any sign on the small tumors. The area where the largest tumor was now shows lots of calcification and the largest tumor has shrunk by almost 90%! Her next CT scan will be 11/3, and they assume they will be discussing surgery to remove the lobe of her liver, where the tumor is located. Timelines are uncertain, but she is hopeful that she will get to spend Christmas with her family at least one more time, if not more! Thanks to EVERYONE who has been praying on her behalf.
9/29 – toby928 asked for prayers for a brother named Joe, who is being crushed by grief. Joe’s wife is in a coma and will likely die in the next few days.
10/12 Update - – Joe’s wife did pass away. She is safe in the arms of our Savior.
10/18 Update – Joe could still use prayers. Losing both parents and his wife in one year has hit him hard.
10/1 – Duke Lowell sent an update. He is home now, after 8 days in the hospital and every antibiotic known to man. He sent thanks for the prayers, and thanks to God for granting him another day in this glorious world He’s created.
10/11 Update – After a second stint in the hospital, Duke is home now. He was recovering nicely, but something “knocked him sideways”. Severe dehydration put him into renal failure. He is on the mend now.
10/2 – Bluebell passed along an update: grammie winger sends her gratitude for all the prayers – she feels they are working. On Oct 6 she will be starting a cancer treatment program because her doctors are “cautiously optimistic” that they can give her some more time. Monday she gets the port, followed by 6 hours of chemo infusion on Tuesday. The Rev is doing better because now he has some hope. Please pray for her as she starts this treatment program because in her words, “prayer changes things”.
10/18 Update – grammie winger sent an update, that she has had her first chemo treatment. There were no side effects. She noted “God is very kind.”
10/4 – Legally Sufficient’s “Boss” will be undergoing intestinal surgery shortly. It looks scary so prayers for him and his medical team are appreciated.
10/4 – The Fabulous for safe travels as she travels to visit her oldest daughter who is about to be a mother of a baby girl. Prayers for the mom to be and her child.
10/4 – Skip requested prayers for his dad, who fell at church back in August, hitting his head. He fell again at home and has had back pain since then. He is going in for more tests on 10/8.
10/11 Update – Dad has a brace to wear and has pain medication, so is doing OK for now. He will need an outpatient procedure soon for an injection in his spine to fill a void. Continuing prayers will help.
10/18 Update – Dad is in the hospital, needing some blood clots cleared up, and will soon have the outpatient operation for his back.
10/25 Update – Dad was released from the hospital and is in a rehab center near his home.
10/4 – Our Country is Screwed sent thanks for the prayers over the past year, during breast cancer treatments. The prayers have sustained, through surgery, chemo, and now through radiation.
10/4 – Random Dave would appreciate prayers from the Horde. He is one of the 5% of government workers that make the other 95% look bad, and he is trying to move to the private sector. He has found a good possibility to meet/exceed his pay and do an interesting job that is a good fit for his skills and interests. Praying that if it’s where God wants him, He will make it clear and the road smooth.
10/4 – DenverGregg asked for prayers for Ana, a lady from his church who is experiencing unemployment and mental illness, which tend to exacerbate each other.
10/4 – Longtime Lurker, Morgan, offers praise for financial blessings and petitions for safety in upcoming travel and coping with social isolation and loneliness, including finding a church home. Blessings upon Ace, the COBs, the other site workers and all the blog lurkers and participants.
10/4 – Mrs. Leggy asked for prayers for a young girl who is suffering from leukemia and now has a horrible infection of the colon. Surgery may be required and because of her weakened condition, this could kill her. Thanks so very much!
10/6 – Inogame sent happy news about his wife and baby. The 20 week ultrasound was completed, and there is one baby girl with all the correct parts in the correct places. Mom and baby are doing well, though mom could use a nap or 20.
10/7 -CW is a long-time Horde member who could use prayers. His relationships with his son and his daughter have deteriorated recently, and his daughter has cut him off from the grandchildren.
10/8 – fourseasons asked for prayers for a brother-in-law, Chris, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He had another scan last weekend and there is another tumor. He is losing his vision and has lost his ability to speak. He will have surgery on 10/10, and the surgeon said he will probably lose the ability to walk. The family is devastated. Chris is a wonderful man and has always been healthy.
10/11 Update – Chris is recovering from surgery to remove his brain tumors now. He was talking last night, which he wasn’t able to do before surgery. They are hoping for a full recovery.
10/11 – NuclearJim requests prayers for spiritual strength to defeat prostate cancer.
10/11 – the lower depths asked for prayers for his/her mother Gail and her eyes (macular degeneration) and knees (bone on bone) failing.
10/11 – FenelonSpoke asked for prayers for her son. He needs a job and has been diligently looking for one. His degree is in botany.
10/11 – tbodie Lurker requested continued prayers for a son with pancreatic cancer. He has been through 3 months of chemo that significantly shrank the cancer. This week he had surgery to remove the remaining cancer. They also removed his spleen. So far things look good. Thank you.
10/11 – Brother Tim asked for prayers as he has two more sessions of radiation. Prayer works and God heals.
10/18 Update – Radiation is done and now Brother Tim is recovering from the effects and praying for a clean PET scan.
10/11 – Ben Had asked for prayers for a very special man we know as olddog. May his medical issues be benign and full health restored.
10/13 – K requested prayers for a co-worker (Grant). Grant and his wife are expecting their first child, and they are experiencing some complications. K would appreciate prayers for peace and a healthy baby for Grant, his wife, and their unborn child.
10/15 – Bulg asked for prayers for an elderly neighbor, who used to babysit for them, is undergoing chemo for colon cancer.
10/16 – jrgunn5 asked for prayers for a son who is going through a very trying time. The son is almost finished with his teaching credentials and Master’s program. He sees other students being offered positions that he is more qualified for, yet he is ignored by the schools where he is working. He is becoming angry and despairing of gaining a position to pay off the enormous debt he has taken on to pursue this career. He needs to hear God’s voice, and a door opening soon would be appreciated.
10/18 – rhennigantx asked for prayers for his friend John. John was a functioning alcoholic while working, and then retired about 2 years ago, and is now in rehab. Prayers are also needed for Toni. She had to have a kidney stone crushed and says she will never do surgery again.
10/18 – From about That Time can use prayers, as a biopsy revealed some sort of lymphoma.
10/18 – J.J. Sefton wrote:
First of all I cannot even begin to express my appreciation for all the love, good wishes, support and of course prayers for me over this past year. On a positive note, I am essentially cancer free but glioblastoma being what it is means having an MRI done every 2 months to monitor for any new growth.
Right now, I humbly ask for your prayers for my spouse who was recently diagnosed with NPH, (normal pressure hydrocephalus) She's scheduled for a spinal tap to both drain excess fluid to relieve pain and hopefully restore her ability to walk and engage in routine physical activity. Then an MRI will also help them decide if she needs a shunt to be inserted into the brain to drain excess cerebral/spinal fluid away and into her stomach. I'm guessing she'll likely need it, fingers crossed that we can speed up this process and get her back to 100% ASAP.
God bless you, Prayers from me to all of you who are suffering,
10/21 – TecumsehTea wrote with prayers of praise that she has recovered from her heart attack. Areas of concern, though, are that they cannot keep her blood pressure stable and in a desirable range. This has brought several additional trips to the ER to bring it down and for observation. She is asking for wisdom and guidance for the doctor, and patience and peace for herself. She says this has been a scary ride, but God continues to show His faithfulness.
10/21 – Grateful wrote to ask for prayers for Pillage Idiot, that God would guide him in his search for employment – resulting in an opportunity that makes the best use of his unique skills. And that PI be blessed with acceptance of their love and caring for him, as he does for everyone else.
10/22 – Pennsyltucky requested prayers for his dad, who underwent cancer surgery on 10/21. Everything seems to have gone well (they’re confident they got it all!) but due to his age, his hospital stay and convalescence will be longer than usual. Dad is doing well, is awake and alert. A full recovery is anticipated but it will take a while. Thank you so much.
10/23 – Grumpy and Recalcitrant asked for prayers for TheJamesMadison, who recently lost his job. Please pray that he finds a new job quickly, and that God grants him peace of mind and calmness of spirit to face this unexpected trial.
10/25 – M&B would like prayers for M's sister. Suddenly, she got dizzy, and with no other symptoms, was diagnosed with a stage 4 glioblastoma brain cancer. Surgeons said that they were able to remove most of it but gave her an 18-24 month survival. She's just finished the first round of chemo and radiation, and she just feels awful. She has that "deer in the headlights" look, since this all happened so fast, with no real symptoms! M&B have been searching through all the recent news about other medicinal options that are working for this type of cancer. We are grateful for all prayers!
10/25 – FenelonSpoke asked for prayers for her retired organist Jessie, whose dear daughter, S, died of cancer recently. Also prayers for Korean War vet, R, who has cancer and is not expected to live long.
10/27 – N asked for prayers for her youngest daughter, "LK", who needs prayers for safety and peace, and her best friend "C" for health and that stress not cause a flare up of psoriatic arthritis as they and another roommate work with the police and the landlord to have the 4th roommate "M" evicted because she is threatening them and making the living situation a nightmare. “M” is bipolar and medicating with alcohol. Prayers for her healing and that she find salvation from the self-destructive path she's on would also be appreciated.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
*****
“God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next. Amen.”
Long stupid story short, they will still be updating the drivers for related boards and APUs, just not promising to address the quirks of every game that comes along.
Also, the release note saying they were dropping support for the USB-C port on RX 7900 series boards was bullshit. Yes, it's in the official release notes; yes, it's officially bullshit.
The previous generation - the RX 400 and RX 500 series, which were the same thing with different numbers - is still kind of dead but we already knew that. You can still find new-in-box RX 580s but they're starting to dry up now. The XFX models I grabbed early this year are completely gone.
Update: Turns out my supplier found another four of them hiding somewhere. Priced around $100 including sales tax.
Considering that a decent SSD costs about 5c per GB, that's about 0.4c of space.
Also, it isn't actually useful for anything. It runs, but it doesn't run most software without you manually installing a bunch more system files.
Those videos explaining how to bypass Windows 11's online account requirement during installation that YouTube has been merrily deleting? Blame AI. (The Register)
YouTube hasn't said anything, but when a video is taken down instantly, and an appeal is also rejected instantly, that's AI.
This is a PCIe 5.0 card with a PCIe 5.0 switch chip on board and eight PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots. So it's fast, but it's also very expensive with the bare card priced at $1999.
The fault there seems to be mainly the PCIe 5.0 switch chip. There don't seem to be any products out there at a reasonable price.
The QNAP 4-port M.2 card that I have costs less than $200 on Amazon, but that's PCIe 3.0. Anything more recent will cost you an arm and a leg and a kidney and maybe a cornea.
Warrant canaries. What these subliterate fascists are talking about are warrant canaries.
A warrant canary is a thing that appears to be normal until and unless the company receives a warrant with a gag order attached, the reasoning being that while gag orders are still legal, they can't compel you to keep your pet canary singing.
Particularly if they don't know you have a pet canary.
No fault attaches to Israel in this. All the blame attaches to the totalitarian regimes that necessitate this sort of warning mechanism.
Good news first: The whole Affinity product range is now free, bundled into a single application simply called Affinity.
Not really a problem news: To get the full functionality you need to pay $120 per year for a Canva subscription, but the only function gated behind the paywall right now is AI slop. The free version does everything the three Affinity apps could do before, except...
Problem news: Affinity v3 can read but not write Affinity v2 files. If you use the new app there's no going back, unless you re-export to a third-party format and lose internal history.
It could have been much worse, but they could also not have done this at all.
"It has been suggested that the universe could be simulated. If such a simulation were possible, the simulated universe could itself give rise to life, which in turn might create its own simulation. This recursive possibility makes it seem highly unlikely that our universe is the original one, rather than a simulation nested within another simulation," says Dr. Faizal. "This idea was once thought to lie beyond the reach of scientific inquiry. However, our recent research has demonstrated that it can, in fact, be scientifically addressed."
No it hasn't.
The team demonstrated that even this information-based foundation cannot fully describe reality using computation alone. They used powerful mathematical theorems - including Gödel's incompleteness theorem-to prove that a complete and consistent description of everything requires what they call "non-algorithmic understanding."
Yes, that's cute. But we already have Gödel's incompleteness theorems (there's two of them) and this doesn't seem to tell us anything new at all - just a limit in the ability to determine the truth of certain mathematical statements.
The second problem, though, is that no-one has ever shown that "non-algorithmic understanding" exists, could possibly exist, or has any kind of clear definition.
The team's conclusion is clear and marks an important scientific achievement, says Dr. Faizal.
"Any simulation is inherently algorithmic - it must follow programmed rules," he says.
Speaking of every game that comes along Escape from Duckov, a combat game involving ducks written by a five-person team in China, has sold two million copies in two weeks, while western titles with budgets in the tens of millions of dollars continue to flounder.
Just a month ago, Megabonk, written by a one-man team, sold a million copies in two weeks... While western titles with budgets in the tens of millions of dollars continued to flounder.
And before that it was Silksong, written by three guys in Australia, selling 6 million copies, and before that it was Schedule 1, written by just one guy in Australia, selling 5 million copies.
It starts to feel like the established video game companies are doing something wrong.
Actually they just said the patent lacked originality, which of course it fucking does because Nintendo waited thirty years before trying to patent it.
Musical Interlude
Michael Jackson's Thriller presented by the Phase Connect girls - not all, but a lot of them, including the five that debuted just last weekend.
So I had those links yesterday, but then Soothsayer one-upped me and linked the entire Paul Lynde Halloween Special. I think I saw that. I remember this stupid joke about KISS, something about them fighting as kids, so their moms told them to "kiss and make up." I'm guessing that terrible joke is from this special.
Adorable Caddyshack costume. The kid has no idea what's going on but I'm sure it's fun for his father.
The Department of Justice has reportedly launched an investigation into whether the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation misused millions of dollars in donations collected during the 2020 George Floyd protests. According to the Associated Press, federal agents have issued subpoenas and executed at least one search warrant as part of the probe, which is being run out of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
Sources familiar with the matter told the AP that the inquiry began under the Biden administration but has recently gained new momentum under President Trump. The Justice Department has declined to comment publicly, but the investigation centers on allegations that BLM defrauded donors who contributed during the nationwide unrest following Floyd's death in Minneapolis.
The Black Lives Matter Foundation raised more than $90 million in the months after Floyd's death, when cities across the country were rocked by protests that in many cases turned violent, resulting in deaths, fires, looting, and widespread property destruction. Critics of the organization have long accused its leadership of withholding information about how those funds were spent.
Remember when CBS morning show host Tony Dokoupils interviewed racist radical Ta-Nehisi Coates about his pro-Hamas screed against Israel (and Jews)? He pushed back against Coates, which is, you know, illegal. All media personnel are required to pretend that this low-IQ racist's every stupid statement is received wisdom from God Herself.
Dokoupils was forced to attend a struggle session by CBS. He probably would have been fired or suspended, save for the fact that Paramount's owner at the time, Shari Redstone, is Jewish and thought he acted like an actual journalist.
During the interview, Dokoupil asked some pointed questions to Coates about the book, including "Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it?"
He also told Coates: "I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards, the acclaim ... the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist."
After the interview, CBS News executives fielded complaints from staffers and then held a meeting on the unfortunate date of Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of Hamas' attack on Israel. At meeting, CBS News CEO and her number two, Adrienne Roark, called out Dokoupil, who is Jewish, for the interview, saying it did not meet the network's editiorial standards.
Those words were questioned internally by supporters of Dokoupil at the meeting, as well as by Shari Redstone, the chair of CBS-parent Paramount Global, who backed the anchor, saying he had done a "great job" with the interview. Redstone added that CBS made a "mistake" in reprimanding Dokoupil and in saying it did not meet their standards.
Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks rushed to the defense of McMahon, backing her decision, while also saying the company needs to have "substantive dialogue" about perceptions of bias and "inconsistent treatment."
I bring that up as background to the new news: The "Race and Culture Unit" that Bari Weiss fired en masse (save for a single guy) was the group conducting that Struggle Session. They attacked Dokoupils for challenging Coates, and even faulted him for his... "tone and posture."
As you know, truth is a defense in defamation. Though that's not why the case was thrown out. To defame someone, you have to make a factual claim about them which is derogatory and untrue. Opinion doesn't count.
Note that leftwing judges routinely claim that factual claims that liberals make about conservatives -- like that Nick Sandmann approached and bullied the "Native American elder" -- are just "opinion," while they simultaneously argue that clear statements of opinion by conservatives, like that someone is "woke," are factual and thus defamatory.
In this case, the left-wing censorious judges claimed that her speech was so "hyperbolic" that it somehow transmuted opinion into fact.
A Moms for Liberty activist in Wisconsin described a onetime "social justice coordinator" in the local high school as a "white savior" and "woke" woman with a "god complex."
She said the employee is emblematic of diversity, equity and inclusion specialists who earn more than the district's teachers, "woke lunatics ... bullying you into silence and compliance," and should "forfeit her job to a person of color" if she "really wants to promote equity."
Scarlett Johnson spent nearly 1,100 days defending herself against a defamation suit by the coordinator, Mary MacCudden, before a divided state appeals court cleared her name this week, overturning a lower court that said a jury should consider whether Johnson's hyperbolic language implied factual assertions about MacCudden.
The duration of the litigation shows the ongoing legal and financial peril for parental rights activists who criticize government employees using language typical of conservatives against those they consider progressive, authoritarian and hypocritical.
I can personally attest that conservatives accused of defamation will be destroyed by any left-wing judge hearing their case.
"The defamation lawsuit against her was meritless and should have been promptly dismissed," Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty deputy counsel Luke Berg, whose group represented Johnson on appeal, said in announcing Tuesday's verdict, three years to the day after MacCudden filed the complaint in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.
But the process is the punishment, as I can also attest.
The University of California system -- taxpayer supported -- now employs a test to determine if you can even enroll in the school. A quiz asks you what pronouns you should use to refer to a transgender, and if you don't say whatever fake pronouns the transgender wants you to use, you're scolded for "harrassment" and blocked from registering.
Read this. A woke Fairfax County, VA prosecutor appears to have deliberately engineered a constitutional violation to set free a repeat sexual felon who accosted a "heavily pregnant" mom and her daughter in a women's bathroom.
When I finally took the stand, the attorney for the Commonwealth asked me if the man who was in the bathroom that day was in the room.
I paused, confused--because I knew what was going to happen next.
The courtroom had been packed all day but as case after case was handled, ours was the last one--now it was just the judge, court reporter, bailiff, the defendant, his lawyer, the Commonwealth attorney, and I.
The arresting officer wasn't in the room. The other victim and her husband had been given a new court date and sent home.
I adjusted my baby against my chest and looked at her as she repeated the question: Do you see the man you reported to police in this room today?
Why was she doing this? What was she doing?
I was sweating in my oversized cashmere nursing sweater and I felt prickles down my back. Everyone was staring at me. I'm not a lawyer. She asked me a question... and she was "on my side" so I should answer it, right?
I adjusted my baby again to give myself a free hand--and I pointed to him.
And just as I expected, his lawyer immediately pointed out there was nobody else present in the courtroom who it could be and therefore we had violated his constitutional right to due process.
The judge agreed. Hell, *I* agreed--but then I asked WHY hadn't the Commonwealth given me a photo array to choose from? Why did she ASK that?
Too late. It didn't matter that he was on surveillance footage entering the bathroom before us and pushing past us as we fled.
He was set free.
As I walked out of the court room the arresting officer spotted me from down the hall and ran over to me "Is it back in this courtroom? Is it starting?"
No, I told him, it's already over. He had been sent to another courtroom "by mistake." He didn't even get a chance to testify. He looked horrified.
The Commonwealth attorney and "victims advocate" that morning assured us they were going to fight for us. They were SO SORRY this had happened to us. They were SO GRATEFUL that I had come to testify in my condition.
Instead they seemingly intentionally let the monster walk free.
It's been two years.
Yesterday he was released on bail for yet another crime--one of at least THIRTEEN he's committed since that day in court--including sexual abuse of a child under 15.
His arrest record from just the last 5 years spans four pages on the Virginia court website.
Look at how many women--and CHILDREN--he's victimized since that day.
Look how many times his victims have gone to court just as I did only to see him set free again and again and again.
This is NOT happening by accident.
This is deliberate.
More here. The guy is constantly sexually assaulting women and masturbating in public and flashing women.
Steve Descano, the prosecutor who keeps setting him free is, get this, a Soros prosecutor.
Virginians 4 Safe Communities
@VA4SafeComm
22h
THIS WEEK: Sex Predator Walks Free
Fairfax Soros DA Steve Descano FREED Child Sex Offender Demetrius Anthony Anderson
40 Charges, 13 Sex Offenses from 2021-2025 including:
* Indecent liberties with child < 15, [PENDING but he's out on bail]
* Peeping Tom x2 [dropped + not guilty]
* Indecent exposure x4, [ 2 dropped, 2 guilty but NO jail]
OTHER: 9x failure to appear/probation violation, Assault, Trespassing, Disorderly Conduct, Drunk in Public, Forgery, Grand theft etc.
A black principal was suspended (or fired, they won't say) from a Dallas-area high school for taking black students aside and telling them that they're the reason the school is getting mediocre ratings from the accreditation boards. You're not allowed to say this.
You're allowed to scold white children for things they never did, like owning slaves, but you're not allowed to take black students aside and tell them they're bringing the school's averages down.
In a letter Monday to parents and teachers at Woodrow Wilson High School, Dallas ISD officials named an interim principal and said they are investigating a "recent incident" at the campus.
The letter comes after Principal Chandra Hooper-Barnett held a meeting with the school's Black students about their academic performance, two parents told The Dallas Morning News.
Hooper-Barnett acknowledged she held a meeting during an advisory period last week that "caused concern within our school community," according to a letter she sent to families Monday.
"The decision to hold that meeting and subsequent discussion that transpired was not appropriate. I take full ownership and responsibility for what occurred, and I want to assure you that it was never my intent to single out or cause harm to any group of students," Hooper-Barnett wrote.
In the letter, she said she is "committed to learning from this and rebuilding the trust that has been shaken."
Woodrow Wilson, located in East Dallas, served nearly 2,000 students last school year, per state data. Black students made up 6% of the campus population in the 2023-24 school year. The school received a B in this year's academic accountability ratings.
Neither letter addressed the status of Hooper-Barnett, who has led the school for three years. Danielle Petters -- who served as principal of J.L. Long Middle School for seven years and H. Grady Spruce High School for four -- will serve as interim principal of the campus, according to a letter from Aaron Aguirre-Castillo, executive director of Dallas ISD's Woodrow Wilson vertical team.
In her letter, Hooper-Barnett said she would "do what is best for our campus, even if that means stepping aside to allow for healing and growth."
Speaking of grades: A Harvard report faulted professors for giving 60% of students "A's" in their classes, stating that the grading system no longer served the purpose of distinguishing between students in terms of achievement.
Harvard students are crying about it.
Steve McGuire
@sfmcguire79
Harvard reports that it is "failing to perform the key functions of grading."
Its grading practices are "damaging the academic culture of the College."
"Faculty newly arrived at Harvard are surprised at how leniently our courses are graded."
Students say academics feel "fake."
Jack Mac
@JackMacCFB
Harvard just released a fascinating study that shows they've made their school too easy.
They've been giving out too many A's and passing too many students. In 2005, 25% of grades were A's. In 2025? 60%!!!!
How did this happen? They forced their professors to adjust to "less prepared students" and those with "imposter syndrome" or other forms of stress.
13h
These Har
vard students...did not react well to the report on grade inflation:
"The whole entire day, I was crying. I skipped classes on Monday, and I was just sobbing in bed because I felt like I try so hard in my classes, and my grades aren't even the best. It just felt soul-crushing."
"What makes a Harvard student a Harvard student is their engagement in extracurriculars. Now we have to throw that all away and pursue just academics. I believe that attacks the very notion of what Harvard is."
"I can't reach my maximum level of enjoyment just learning the material because I'm so anxious about the midterm, so anxious about the papers, and because I know it's so harshly graded. If that standard is raised even more, it's unrealistic to assume that people will enjoy their classes."
It’s not just Harvard, and grades are going up while academic ability is going down.
On the left, grade inflation at eight large public universities.
CENSORSHIP: Swiss man jailed for claiming biological sex can be determined by examining skeletal remains. Switzerland and the EU determined the claim belittled the LGBTQ community. pic.twitter.com/ZpzPYyrqq3
Amazing. Likely immigrant or even illegal alien woman demands that we stop giving away "meal kits" to food banks, because that's not as good as giving the indigent SNAP EBT cards to pick their own foods.
She also said that the white people who are donating this free charity food are donating "white centric" food items.
There's been a lot of EBT videos all over X, and they're all very repetitive. This one stands out above them all. This level of entitlement is amazing.
A Maryland state senator once seen as a rising Democrat star is facing explosive allegations that she conspired to secretly record and blackmail her political critics. Federal prosecutors have charged State Sen. Dalya Attar, her brother Joseph "Yossi" Attar, and Baltimore Police Officer Kalman Finkelstein with conspiracy, extortion, illegal wiretapping, and violations of the Travel Act -- a slate of federal offenses that could bring decades in prison if convicted.
According to a newly unsealed 20-page federal indictment, Attar and her co-defendants allegedly set up hidden cameras disguised as smoke detectors inside an apartment belonging to two of Attar's critics -- one of them a former campaign consultant who had worked on her 2018 campaign but later supported her political rivals. The second target was reportedly in a romantic relationship with the consultant and married to someone else at the time. Prosecutors say the trio not only filmed the pair in bed together but used the footage to intimidate them into silence.
Investigators claim the covert operation was designed to protect Attar's political standing as she eyed re-election and higher office. WhatsApp messages cited in the indictment suggest the senator herself discussed the scheme and its potential leverage. "We have a very easy ... simple way to get her to just shut up and leave us alone," Attar allegedly wrote in one message. "She's worried about her kids' shidduchim." In another message, she added, "I'm not saying we leak this anywhere or ever do that ... but I'm saying we warn her ... 'If you go ahead and screw with me, we're going to leak it.'"
The intimidation campaign allegedly escalated in December 2021, when Joseph Attar met one of the victims at a Baltimore shopping center and issued a chilling threat: "I have hours of footage of you in bed with [Victim 1] ... Go to [Victim 1] and say leave Dalya alone ... or I'll share this video with everyone you know -- every Rabbi in town, your kids, your wife, her daughters." Federal prosecutors say the threats continued into 2022 as Attar's team sought to keep both victims quiet ahead of her re-election effort. To cover their tracks, the indictment alleges, the defendants coordinated through encrypted WhatsApp messages and routinely deleted their communications.
Attar, a Democrat and former Baltimore prosecutor, was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2018 and appointed to the state Senate in January 2025. She had been viewed as an emerging figure within Maryland's Orthodox Jewish community, where she built a reputation as a tough prosecutor and vocal progressive on local issues.
Bonus: Kamala Harris shares the heart-breaking moment when she learned she had lost the presidential race. She said there were 200,000 votes she needed to win that her campaign manager "couldn't find."
She uses the same word -- "find" -- that Fatty Fanny Funstuff claimed proved a criminal intent to order Georgia's election officials to fake the vote. Seems like it's a normal bit of campaign jargon.
* Firefighters alerted a battalion chief that areas of a New Year's Day fire in Pacific Palisades, known as the Lachman fire, were still smoldering the next day, according to text messages.
* The firefighters were ordered to pack up and leave anyway, instead of monitoring the burn area for reignitions.
* Federal authorities say the blaze reignited on Jan. 7, destroying thousands of homes and killing 12 people.
Firefighters mopping up a small brush fire that authorities say reignited as the Palisades fire five days later were ordered to leave the original burn scene even though they complained the ground was still smoldering and rocks remained hot to the touch, according to firefighter text messages reviewed by The Times.
To the firefighters' surprise, their battalion chief ordered them to roll up their hoses and pull out of the area on Jan. 2 -- the day after the 8-acre blaze was declared contained -- rather than stay and make sure there were no hidden embers that could spark a new fire, the text messages said.
On the morning of Jan. 7, according to federal authorities, strong winds stoked the remnants of the New Year's Day blaze into the firestorm that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Topanga.
In one text message, a firefighter who was at the scene on Jan. 2 wrote that the battalion chief had been told it was a "bad idea" to leave the burn scar unprotected because of the visible signs of smoldering terrain. "And the rest is history," the firefighter wrote in recent weeks.
As we ask every single day: If they were doing this all deliberately, how would their actions look any different?
WSJ Op-Ed: "Transgenderism" Is a Social Contagion, Science Shows Trans Extremists Push Suicide of a Trans Athlete As Proof Women Should Allow Men In Women's Sports and Changing Areas
—Ace
Colin Wright wrote an op-ed for the WSJ. He says that the trendlines for transgender identification show that the phenomenon is, as has long been suspected, a social contagion spread by tweens much like many other viral contagions.
"If transgender identity were an innate trait, like left-handedness, we would expect identification rates to rise at first when it became socially acceptable, then plateau and remain stable at a fixed level," Wright wrote. "If the phenomenon were instead driven by social contagion, we might expect a boom-and-bust pattern: a spike followed by a rapid decline once the social forces driving it weaken."
But Wright notes that the data doesn't support the idea that trans identity is an innate trait.
"An analysis of campus surveys by Eric Kaufmann of the University of Buckingham and the Center for Heterodox Social Science found that the share of college students identifying as transgender fell 50% between 2023 and 2025," Wright noted. "Psychologist Jean Twenge's analysis of the annual Cooperative Election Study, administered by YouGov, found that transgender identification among 18- to 22-year-olds declined by nearly 50% between 2022 and 2024. She concluded that 'it looks like the peak of trans identification is in the past.'"
While transgender activists argue that transgenderism is inherent in humans, data shows that most cases are much more likely to be a social contagion or cultural fad.
Wright's cited surveys are consistent with a recent pattern among newly released data.
A recent study out of England showed that "incidence rates of recorded gender dysphoria/incongruence increased from 0.14 to 4.4 per 10,000 person years" from 2011 to 2021, which represented a 3,000% increase.
That came on the heels of a German study that showed "for most young people, the gender-identity related diagnosis (F64) does not persist after 5 years."
Essentially, trans identity suddenly spiked in the middle-to-late 2010s, and it's now starting to fall. That pattern more closely resembles a cultural fad or social contagion than the discovery of a new disorder, as Wright argues.
"The overwhelming majority of those driving the trans craze fall into the 'nonbinary' category--adopting identities which are said to be neither, both, or somewhere between male and female. These include labels such as 'demiboy,' 'genderfluid' or 'two-spirit.' These are social identities, not biological ones," Wright said.
A trans pyrsyn has committed suicide. It's getting press because despite the claim that this always happens, it doesn't actually always happen, so the trans extremists have to milk every actual suicide for all it's worth.
Trans extremists are using the suicide to, get this, pressure women into letting men beat the shit out of them in sports and change in their locker rooms.
Kim Shasby Jones
@KimJonesICONS
This post from @AriDrennen infuriates me.
For so many reasons.
First, any taking of life is tragic. This is a sad ending for Lia Smith.
It is grotesque and depraved of Drennan to use this tragedy to emotionally blackmail women and the public into holding women responsible for a man's suicide bc they didn't want to undress with him or let him compete in women's sports.
Women are NOT responsible for the mental health of men and certainly not required to give up their rights and bodies for a man's emotional well-being.
The age-old threat used against women trying to stop abuse, "if you leave, I'll kill myself", is exactly what Mr Drennan's message is.
Emotional blackmail is NEVER acceptable, not in elite sport, not in "just D3" sport, not in elementary school.
Not in locker rooms at the Y.
To tell a young man that he can be accepted as a woman, that he should get to compete against women, that he should be allowed into womens spaces, that he can become a woman - this is setting him up to fail. It is NOT a failure of women to accommodate his desires, it's a failure of medicine, leadership, and culture for not holding firm the boundaries of reality and helping him figure out how to navigate them.
Women are not tools of affirmation for the emotional support of men.
As a black woman of color and gender, let me add that if your "solution" to trans suicide is just to make every person in the world pretend that men are women, you've failed.
That. Is NEVER. Going. To Happen.
Trans extremists are selling confused mentally-ill people on the idea that one day straight men will have sex with them and marry them because, goshdarnit, they're 100% women and it's their right to insist that everyone acknowledge this "fact."
And when this doesn't happen, they get more depressed and sometimes kill themselves.
So stop selling them on an absurd fantasy that straight men (or lesbians) are going to treat men with dicks-and-balls as if they're Real Women. We're not, they're not, and you are setting up mentally-ill people for a crushing disappointment they're not mentally or emotionally equipped to handle.
Only about 10% of men are willing (or eager) to pretend that men are women. We call this the "Jonah Goldberg Cohort."
Trans advocates are deliberately over-promising the results of "transitioning" and then turning around to the rest of us and telling us, "Well we already promised them they would be accepted without question as literal, real women, so now you have to make good on the promise we made or else they'll kill themselves out of remorse!"
Instead of demanding the rest of us make good on your absurd promise, how about you just stop making that absurd promise?
Maybe trans people wouldn't be so suicidal if you stopped setting them up for the massive fall.
Meanwhile, the world's loudest and crappiest bartender doesn't feel she's getting enough attention.
It’s always hilarious when they think they’ve landed a “gotcha” by pointing out I was the 5th-fastest woman *in the nation* yet they conveniently forget the mediocre man who ranked 462nd in the men’s division lol
Delta and United Airlines are demanding that Democrats stop holding the government hostage and vote for the clean continuing resolution Republicans already passed, warning that the standoff is punishing federal workers and starting to rattle the economy. Speaking to reporters Thursday, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby praised air traffic controllers, TSA agents, and FAA staff for keeping flights running under crushing pressure but said Democrats' inaction is pushing them to the brink. "They've minimized delays. Fewer than two percent of flights have been delayed so far because of air traffic control shortage," Kirby said. "They've done a great job, but it's putting stress on people. It's not fair to those people. It's also putting stress on the economy." Now at Day 30, Kirby said, the Democrat-led shutdown is beginning to show real economic fallout. "The first couple of weeks had no impact on the economy, but as every day goes by, the impacts start to grow," he said. "Airlines are a pretty good real-time indicator of the economy, and we're starting to see minor but steep booking impact. We put the whole economy at risk."
Kirby said he has no interest in Democrats' attempts to spin the fight into a healthcare debate, calling instead for Congress to "pass a clean CR" and hash out policy differences "behind closed doors, without putting American workers and the economy at risk." Delta issued a similar demand, urging lawmakers to "immediately pass a clean continuing resolution," adding that "missed paychecks only increase the stress on these essential workers, many of whom are already working mandatory overtime to keep our skies safe and secure."
President Trump is done letting Democrats hold the government hostage. On Thursday, he called on Senate Republicans to "play their Trump card" and invoke the nuclear option -- scrapping the filibuster and ending the month-long shutdown with a simple majority vote.
"It is now time for the Republicans to play their 'TRUMP CARD,' and go for what is called the Nuclear Option -- get rid of the filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!" Trump wrote in a fiery Truth Social post after returning from a five-day swing through Asia. He said world leaders kept asking how "the Democrats SHUT DOWN the United States of America" and why Republicans allowed it to happen.
"Majority Leader John Thune, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, are doing a GREAT job," Trump said, "but the Democrats are Crazed Lunatics that have lost all sense of WISDOM and REALITY." He blamed the standoff on a "sick form" of Trump Derangement Syndrome -- the obsession, he argued, that's driving Democrats to damage the country rather than give his administration a win.
As expected, Thune is refusing to nuke the filibuster, because he believes, naively and insanely, that the Democrats will not themselves end the filibuster the moment it becomes useful for them to do so.
Republicans are quickly tamping down President Donald Trump's call to eliminate the Senate filibuster as they try to keep pressure on Democrats to end the 31-day government shutdown.
GOP leaders believed Thursday they were on track to reopen agencies as soon as next week. Then Trump threw a fresh complication into their laps overnight when he revived calls for Republicans to invoke the "nuclear option" and eliminate the 60-vote threshold for passing most legislation. Without it, Republican senators could reopen the government on their own.
But many GOP senators have vocally defended the filibuster, including Majority Leader John Thune, calling the 60-vote rule a fundamental feature of the Senate and one that works to conservatives' benefit in the long run.
Thune has defended the filibuster multiple times during the shutdown, calling it a "bad idea" to suggest eliminating it. "The 60-vote threshold has protected this country," he said earlier this month.
The Democrats have eliminated the use of the filibuster every single time the Republicans used it to block them. Republicans used it to block federal court nominations; Harry Reid nuked it.
It's crazy to think the Democrats would ever allow Republicans to pull their own shutdown stunt in the future. The GOP is always being taught lessons, but never, ever learns.
NEWS -- There's a sense within the Senate Democratic caucus that next week will bring significant movement toward ending the government shutdown, multiple sources told Axios.
Likely after election day on Tuesday. Lawmakers have made progress on talks around packaging approps bills with a CR.
The major sticking point remains around ACA subsidies.
Dems know it's incredibly unlikely any extension passes the House.
Working group and a floor vote on ACA extension are potential offramps.
A prominent Mexican lawmaker has delivered a stunning rebuke of her country's leadership, agreeing with President Trump's long-standing claim that Mexico is effectively controlled by drug cartels. In a video message posted this week, Mexican Senator Lily Téllez declared, "He is not lying -- it's the truth, and the people of Mexico know it."
Téllez, a leading member of the opposition National Action Party (PAN), said that Trump's assessment "doesn't shame us as good, honest Mexicans -- it exposes the corrupt ruling class of MORENA," the leftist party led by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his successor, President Claudia Sheinbaum. "Claudia, you don't represent the Mexican people," Téllez said bluntly. "You represent the MORENA Cartel. You lack any dignity."
The senator accused López Obrador and Sheinbaum of colluding with powerful drug syndicates to secure political power and then allowing them to expand their grip on the nation. "The cartel problem didn't begin with MORENA, but under them, it has exploded," she said. "They surrendered national sovereignty and absolute power to organized crime."
NEW from me: Obama used to be confident America would survive Trump. He’s not so sure anymore.
“The harm is so profound that this calls for both a different approach generally, and a different involvement specifically by President Obama,” Eric Holder saidhttps://t.co/VBTkv8BR9u
“We can’t have a message that disparages Trump or their voters. You won’t hear me saying ‘fascist,’ ‘Nazi’ or anything else when talking about Trump or our voters in this state. That doesn’t win over voters, and honestly, it’s wrong. Let’s give them something to vote for — and… pic.twitter.com/VymDwVPUzN
Podcast: Historian and Pundit Robert Spencer joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about the Islamists in our midst: Mamdani in NYC, all across Europe, and others.
Schmoll: 53% of New Jersey likely voters say their neighbors are voting for Ciattarelli, while 47% say the cheater/grifter Mikie Sherrill The "who do you think your neighbors are voting for" question is designed to avoid the Shy Tory problem, wherein conservative people lie to schmollsters because they don't want to go on record with a likely left-winger telling them who they're really voting for. So instead the question is who do you think your neighbors are voting for, so people can talk about who they themselves support without actually having to admit it to a left-wing rando stranger recording their answers on the phone.
Interesting football history: How the forward pass was created in response to the nineteen -- 19! -- people killed playing football in 1905 alone The original rules of football did not allow forward passes. The ball was primarily advanced by running, with blockers forming lines with interlocked arms and just smashing into the similarly-interlocked defensive lines. It was basically Greek hoplite spear formations but with a semi-spherical ball. As calls to ban the sport entirely grew, some looked for ways to de-emphasize mass charges as the primary means of advancing the ball, and some specifically championed allowing a passer to throw the ball forward.
In a world where Hollywood's woke agenda threatens to drown out truth, one man - armed with some very well-heeled friends - dares to fight back.
