It has to be remembered that most winning Republicans have lost the national vote in the past few decades, but won in the swing states.

If a Republican is ahead in the national vote -- forget about it, it's a blowout. Democrats run behind the national vote in the electoral college, so if Trump actually wins more votes, we're looking at a 300 electoral vote drubbing.

Update: This isn't enough cops to clear a table, never mind a college campus.

The faculty are now playing Human Shields for Hamas.

How appropriate.

Do the actual students of Columbia, not the rich foreign nepo baby oil-brats, support the idea of ending this entire semester with incomplete grades and no credits?

A lot of Jewish friends, especially those who are finally awake after 10/7, say things like "how is this America?" or "It's so scary that this Jew-hatred is happening everywhere." But it's very much NOT "America" and it absolutely is NOT happening "everywhere." In south Florida, Jews wear the dinner plate Magen Davids and no one says one word. In rural Michigan, churches put "pray for Israel" on the signs outside. I'm not naive, obviously Jew-haters can and do live anywhere. But they're only thriving, open, proud, in blue areas and I'm not going to let people ignore that. A lot of liberal Jews are trying to parse things right now. They imagine they are still of the left but just on this one tiny little thing, their right to exist, they disagree. No, my friends. It's a house of cards and you're pulling the one from the very bottom. The whole left ideology is corrupt and you're going to have to face it. You can't spread the blame around. The hatred, the rage, the violence, the dehumanization is all coming from one side: yours.

As even Jake Tapper has noted, Jewish students at Columbia are being advised to avoid campus “until it’s safe again for them.” Josh Hammer notes that this has a very 1930s feel to it, pointing out that cleansing an area of Jews – for their own safety – is a modern day Judenrein.

Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) wrote a piece for the NY Post a few days ago advising Jewish students to avoid the Jew-hatred at the northern elite universities and head south.

“Jewish students, come here to the South — where you’ll be safe” [Glenn Reynolds – NY Post – 4/24/2024]

In this piece he provides examples of how the problem isn’t just anti-semitic attitudes at elite, northern universities, but actual physical actions being taken against Jewish students.

And it’s not just Columbia. At Yale, a Jewish student was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag wielded by an anti-Israel protester after fellow marchers blocked building entrances.

She and a friend were singled out because they were wearing Hasidic Jewish attire and surrounded by members of the pro-Palestinian mob. As The Post reported, the student “said she tried to report the assault to campus police but they told her there was nothing they could do.”

Harvard has been just as bad. Facing a congressional probe over widespread antisemitism and failure to protect Jewish students, it’s been doing its best to stonewall. Jews who put out menorahs for Hanukkah had to take them away each night for safekeeping to avoid vandalism, but when pro-Palestinian students put up a display Harvard provided 24/7 security.

He contrasts this with the response in Knoxville (University of Tennessee) after October 7.

In my city of Knoxville, after Hamas’ Oct. 7 rape/torture/murder/kidnapping spree, we had a pro-Israel rally attended by all our major civic leaders. The allegedly elite schools had marches in support of Hamas.

A diaspora of northern Jewish students to southern universities has already begun, and it’s growing.

This following piece was published a few days ago at The Free Press, which was founded a couple of years ago by Bari Weiss after she defected from the mandatory left-wing groupthink at the NY Times.

“Kids Are Giving Up on Elite Colleges—and Heading South” [Eric Spitznagel – The Free Press - 4/22/2024]

Katz, who is Jewish, says the antisemitism that’s increasingly visible at colleges nationwide—especially in the Ivy League, and other elite institutions like Stanford and Berkeley—hasn’t even touched his [Elon, North Carolina] campus. “I haven’t been affected by it at all,” Katz told me. “I definitely feel very safe on campus regarding my religion.”

It’s not just the absence of Jew-hatred steering these kids south, it’s also the overall culture of freedom in the South.

“Kids up north were pretty unhappy during those Covid lockdown years,” says his dad, Larry Glazer. “And colleges down south were offering something different. My son and his friends would look at TikTok and see all these college kids going to football games, throwing parties, living their lives. It has an impact.”

On a lighter note, Mary Katherine Ham and Iowahawk validate this last point:

Finally, there is such an open hatred of practicing Christians among our secular elites that they have strangely projected their own anti-semitism onto conservative Christians. The truth could not be more different. Conservative Christians are overwhelmingly supportive of the nation of Israel, with deep love and support for our Jewish brothers and sisters, both here in America and abroad.

At thousands of pulpits in churches across this country, Christians are praying for Israel and for our Jewish kin. This is but one example - Pastor Mike Haman in Baton Rouge is a dear person to my wife and me for his role several years ago in bringing us back to the Faith. This is how he started his sermon on April 14, the morning after Iran launched a fusillade of missiles at Israel.

I want us to take a moment, would you do this, would you join me in praying for the nation of Israel? Father, we come to you today and we lift up our brothers and sisters in the Middle East. God, I thank you. You said in Genesis 12, you told the nation of Israel, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you.” Father, we want to walk under the blessing of almighty God. We don’t understand all the dynamics of what’s happening in the Middle East, but we know that you are sovereign, and Lord we know that the Jews are your chosen people. Salvation came to the Earth through the Jewish people. And so God I pray for peace in the Middle East. God I pray for those that are suffering, the innocent lives that are being lost, Father. Lord I pray that you would cancel the plans of the enemy, in Jesus’ name. Lord I thank you that you are sovereign. You are in control, and so we trust that, and we rest in that, in Jesus’ name. And all of God’s people said, ‘Amen.’

Western civilization is dependent on the perpetuation of Judeo-Christianity. Arm in arm, with the same God as our mighty fortress, Christians and Jews together can save our country...and civilization.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

ISRAEL vs IRAN & GAZA/HAMAS
• Robert Spencer: "If the Biden regime gets four more years, the U.S. will turn against Israel entirely, isolating the Jewish state on the world stage as it faces a threat to its very survival. If jihadis succeed in destroying Israel and turn against America with new energy and enthusiasm, will any of the leftist policy wonks ever have a tinge of regret for how they destroyed the U.S./Israeli alliance? Not on your life."
  Did the Biden Regime Green-Light Arrest Warrants for Israeli Leaders, Including Netanyahu?
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: "Its failure to stop a much smaller Israel response, coupled with the overwhelming success of Israel and its allies in stopping a much larger Iranian attack, reminds the Iranian autocracy that its shrill rhetoric is designed to mask its impotence and to hide its own vulnerabilities from its enemies."
  Iran Just Pulled its Own Nuclear Teeth
  
• “'Palestine' is just a fairytale that terrorists and Marxist professors tell their charges in order to motivate them to violence against their political opponents."
  By Any Measure in Human History, Israel Has a Right to Exist
  
• Vayr ge hargit, Sanders - jjs
  Godless Commie Scumbag Sanders: Netanyahu’s Right-Wing ‘Racist Government’ Causing Humanitarian Disaster in Gaza
  
• "The case for sovereignty."
  "From the River to the Sea" Belongs to Israel
  
• Robert Spencer Part Deux: "Morton Klein, President of the Zionist Organization of America, stated it plainly: 'Biden and this [junta] knows that almost all of it,' that is, the aid, 'is stolen by Hamas.' That leads to an inescapable conclusion: 'We are funding Hamas. Do you realize the nightmare of this? We are funding Hamas with this 9 billion. What is wrong with this [junta]?'" (Let me count the ways - jjs)
  Who Funds Hamas? You Do, Thanks to Old Joe Biden
  
• "Falling for the jokes of a fake rabbi is one thing. Actually offering to help plan a fundraiser for a virulent anti-Semite claiming to be running for Congress as a Democrat raises questions that Bowman doesn't want to answer."
  How Dumb Do You Have to Be to Get Duped by the "Chief Rabbi of Gaza?"
  
• "Rape is not 'resistance.'”
  Screams Before Silence
  
• "The Hamas apologists who now infest Ivy League seem not to know that war is not intended to punish the guilty and spare the innocent."
  War is Not Law Enforcement
  * * * * *

• Robert Spencer Three-peat: "The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has been laying the groundwork for years for what’s happening now."
  Why Have Campuses Gone All-In For Hamas?
  
• Robert Zimmerman: "That today’s protest riots have been almost exclusively limited to college campuses is another good sign. The number of rioters appears down, and they also don’t seem to have the resources necessary to occupy and loot many inner cities."
  Good News: The Nature of the Riots This Election Year Suggests the Leftist Rioters are Losing Steam
  
• "Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was arrested Saturday night while protesting in support of 'Palestine' on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, Fox Digital reported."
  Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Arrested
  
• "Once again, young people who have nothing important or valuable in their lives and who believe in nothing substantive or enduring are demonstrating their desperate need for belonging and purpose."
  Heroic Doubling and Supporting Hamas
  
• "A left-wing activist group, Code Pink, reportedly organized the demonstration, instructing supporters go through Kalorama Park to reach the hotel, according to the group’s website."
  VIDEO: Anti-Israel Protesters Cause Chaos For White House Correspondents’ Dinner Attendees
  
• “We all share the view, based on discussions within our community and with outside experts, that to bring back the NYPD at this time would be counterproductive, further inflaming what is happening on campus.”
  Columbia University: NYPD Not Permitted To Oust Anti-Israel Illegal Occupiers
  
• “This was one of the first takedowns of many, several protesters were arrested today on the campus.”
  WATCH: Georgia Trooper Tackles Protester During Anti-Israel Demonstration at Emory University
  
• “I impulsively hit him on the head very lightly to get his attention. And they grabbed me, threw me to the ground and arrested me.”
  Arrested Emory U. Prof. No Victim Despite Leftist Outrage, Admitted She Hit Cop While He Was Subduing Another Rioter
  
• “You fa**ot mother f***er! Suck my d**k!” the man shouted at the pro-Israel protester. Just as a side note, in telling someone to “suck my d**k,” doesn’t that make that person the homosexual in the situation? He’s the only one demanding gay relations here. Just saying.
  Anti-Israel Violent Racist Goes After Pro-Israel Protester: 'I'll Kill You,' 'White Fa**ot'
  * * * * *

• "Since the start of the anti-Israel encampments, students at several universities and colleges have been suspended, those participating in the encampments have been arrested, and graduation ceremonies have been canceled."
  John Fetterman: "I Don’t Believe Living in a Pup Tent for Hamas Is Really Helpful"
  
• Clarice Feldman: "A generation of reckless, entitled, ill-educated brats has stampeded American universities off a high place into the sea."
  Was it All That Baby Proofing?
  
• Phyllis Chesler: "These pro-Jihad protests are one way to escape the ongoing female realities in the West."
  Why are Women in America Cheering for Hamas and Iran?
  
• "What’s troubling is the extension of reasonable skepticism towards our institutions into categorical hatred of foundational American ideals."
  To Understand Campus Protesters, The Right Should Dig Much Deeper
  
• "Peter Beinart tells American Jews (those calling themselves themselves liberals, at any rate) to oppose the continued existence of a Jewish nation and homeland in the Mideast."
  Peter Beinart vs. Israel and the Jews
  
• "Biden equivocates while academic leaders cower."
  The Spreading Pro-Hamas Movement on Campuses Earns Hamas’ Praise
  
• The university also said the protesters have “attempted several times to break into multiple locked buildings with the intention of either locking themselves in, vandalizing, or stealing equipment.”
  Cal Poly Humboldt Shuts Down Campus For Remainder Of Semester Due To Anti-Israel Protests
  
• "Our nation is dedicated to the good, beyond equivocation. The universities, alas, are not."
  American Universities Have Squandered the Public’s Esteem
  
• "Welcome to the Left's harrowing twilight zone."
  Video: Drag Queen Leads Children in Chants of "Free 'Palestine’ "

  WE-ALL-SLAM-FOR-I-SLAM

• "Riots began following rumors that Coptic Christians were planning to build a new church in the village of Al-Fawakher."
  Egypt: Islamist Mobs Attack Christians, Set Fire to Homes 

  "BIDEN BORDER BLOODBATH," AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY

• "The low detention rate comes after Congress approved 41,500 ICE beds for the rest of the fiscal year, far above the 25,000 ICE beds that DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requested."
  Joe Biden’s DHS Keeps Detention Space Unfilled as Criminal Illegal Aliens End Up in American Communities
  
• "A 501(c)(3) designation isn’t a license to break the law." (If it's leftist, it sure as hell is - jjs)
  Why are the Charities Enabling Illegal Immigration Still Tax-Exempt?
  
• Donald Trump has described migrant crime as a dangerous “new category of crime.” Last week, Chairman of the House National Security, Border, and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Rep. Glenn Grothman confirmed that authorities are monitoring at least 617,000 illegal aliens with criminal convictions or pending charges.
  MIGRANT CRIME ROUND-UP: Pedos & Predators Repeatedly Released by Authorities

  BIDEN CRIME FAMILY REVELATIONS & DEMENTIA WATCH

• "Henry Kissinger spent his last day as secretary of state looking into Joe and Frank Biden’s taxpayer-funded Africa junket."
  Biden Famously Lied About Being Arrested in South Africa. His Use of Taxpayer Dollars on the Trip Also Brought Scrutiny, Documents Show.
  
• Thad McCotter: "Given their prevarications and party propaganda, will the Biden [junta] and its regime media cohorts ever receive their just desserts?"
  Cannibalism: A Teachable Moment
  
• Rep Comer: “The Bidens don’t sell a product, service, or a set of skills. It’s simple: the Biden family is selling access for millions of dollars to those around the world willing to pay for it. And Joe Biden continues to lie about the role he played in the influence peddling schemes.”
  House GOP Raises Alarm Over Biden Family’s Alleged Business With Qatari Officials

  SHAMPEACHMENTS, 2016 CLINTON/OBAMA COUP, CONGRESSIONAL PERSECUTION, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, MUELLER DECEPTION

• ". . . if the GSA had been in possession of the boxes, why wasn't a review of the materials conducted before they instructed Trump's team to get them? When it comes to classified information, they wouldn't have expected Trump and his staff to be responsible for ensuring that classified documents weren't among the records. Perhaps they did review the contents of the boxes and knew classified documents were contained in them before they told Trump's people to come get them."
  New Bombshell Evidence Emerges: Was Trump Set Up in Classified Docs Saga?
  
• "I’m not a lawyer, but I had to listen to the oral arguments the other day. What I heard again was, they weren’t talking about the facts of the case. They were coming up with all these hypotheticals. They should go ahead and allow this trial on January 6th to go forward in the district court, and we should know the results before the election.”
  Donna Brazile-nut: Supreme Court Close to Election Interference, "Justice Delayed Is Democracy Denied"
  
• "Here’s the latest information you need to know about each prosecution Democrats are waging against the Republican presidential candidate."
  Last Week In Lawfare Land: Witness Testimony, Another SCOTUS Case, and a New Indictment Drop
  
• "A 'not guilty' verdict will boost Trump’s campaign beyond any speech, ad, or debate." (Except this is a show trial and the verdict was in before it began - jjs)
  A Defense Strategy for the Case of NY v. Trump

  CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION

• "It’s a reminder, as if we needed it, that the 'law' in Democrat enclaves is unconcerned with justice. Instead, it exists to further the Democrat party’s power."
  The D.C. Court’s Fiendish Plan if the Supremes Overrule J6ers’ 1512(c)(2) Convictions
  
• "It’s hard to imagine that anyone who didn’t hate our country would deliberately continue to take us even further towards the path of self destruction than Biden."
  The Gloves Will Come Off in a Second Biden Term
  
• "We need to brace ourselves and, more, steel ourselves to hold course in the face of the coming threats."
  We Face a Long Hot Summer
  
• "George Floyd died in 2020, but with another election coming up, the same race hustlers are back (this time against Jews), so it’s very important to understand how they operate."
  It Still Matters That the George Floyd Prosecutions Were Corrupted By Racial Politics

  FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH

• Daniel Greenfield: "What was Biden's biggest mistake? Getting up to speak."
  Biden’s Sad White House Correspondents’ Dinner Performance
  
• Miranda Devine:"Joe Biden is the least popular president [legitimate or otherwise] of the past 70 years, according to a new Gallup poll. But you wouldn’t know it if you were at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on Saturday night. The glittering event is supposed to be a roast of the [so-called quote-unquote "president"]."
  Joe Biden is Far From "Decent" Despite What the Media and Celebrities Claim
  
• "Perhaps the cringiest moment — emerging from a sea of pure cringe — came when members of the WHCA tried their hand at a viral TikTok trend, attempting to mimic the 'I’m a [insert random thing here], of course I [insert another random thing here]' meme. Current (but possibly soon-to-be former) White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre put the cherry on top of the cringe cake with her awkward rendition of the skit."
  The White House Correspondents’ Dinner Was a Monument to Corporate Press’ Self-Importance and Left-Wing Cronyism
  
• “So you were getting — the Biden [junta] was buying ads from you?” Hanania asked. “Yeah, I was doing full-on political propaganda,” Khalidi stated.
  OnlyFans Performer Farha Khalidi Says She Was ‘Black Pilled’ After Making ‘Political Propaganda’ Ads for Biden Junta
  
• CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins got schooled by former Attorney General Bill Barr when she pressed him about his belief that Joe Biden is a greater "threat to democracy" than Donald Trump, and insisting that he thinks "the real threat to democracy is the progressive movement." (Meh, he can go sit on a bagpipe and rotate - jjs)
  Bill Barr Doubles Down on Supporting Trump in 2024, and XiNN Can’t Even
  
• "There are plenty of reasons why the gag order on Trump is unconstitutional and intentionally prejudicial, but witness intimation is indefensible.  And he did not do it."
  Media Reports Shocking Trump NYC Witness Intimidation—And Then We Busted Them.

  THE ECONOMY, STUPID

• “It’s not so much that we risk stagflation as we’re already there. We have basically pulled forward trillions of dollars of economic growth by borrowing from the future, but that must be repaid at some point. And it is highly inefficient as well.”
  Mounting Evidence is Pointing to a Nightmare Scenario for the US Economy
  
• "The same forces of globalization and consolidation that hit the rest of the economy have wrecked America’s farms."
  How American Agriculture Went Wrong
  
• "Biden’s lousy economy may predict Democrat defeat on November 5, 2024."
  It's the Economy – Again

  RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM

• "Biden created the Climate Corps via executive action last year after urging from [Titty-Caca] Ocasio-Cortez."
  Biden's Taxpayer-Funded Climate Corps Hiring Anti-Racist Gardeners
  
• "Not quite Waterloo yet but getting there."
  Retreating From "Net-Zero"
  
• Even if you are an enthusiast for "green energy," the lesson by now is clear: energy and environmental protection are much too important to be left to environmentalists. They screw everything up.
  Environmentalists vs. the Environment

  CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY

• Residents of Washington, D.C., have faced skyrocketing violence since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2017, gun violence in the city has risen by 40 percent. This past week, shootings across the nation’s capital resulted in three people being killed. In a particularly concerning incident, 71 shots were fired on Spring Road just two miles away from some of the city’s most tony addresses.
  WATCH: D.C. Mayor Bowser Refuses To Meet With Grieving Father Who Has Lost 3 Sons to Violence in Her City
  
• "McKie served with the KCPD since April 2000, largely in the department’s Crime Free Multi-Housing unit from 2002 to 2023, according to the outlet. He led Mid-America Crime Free, Inc. (MACF), a nonprofit which promotes anti-crime programs and training for the rental housing sector, from 2009 to 2023, The Kansas City Star reported."
  Missouri Police Officer Who Ran Anti-Crime Charity Indicted In $300,000 Fraud, Laundering Scheme

  AMERICA AND THE WORLD IMPRISONED: CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS AND FACTS

• "The lockdowns revealed something more than government tyranny or incompetence: our own disordered priorities."
  Covid and the Good-Time Economy

  EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT

• "Once the stewards of American culture, civics, ethics, letters, and history, these schools have now become activist training grounds for those who hate America."
  It's Time to Defund American Universities That Teach Students to Hate Our Nation
  
• "When the DEI crowd removes it from education, that are creating a less rational and functional population."
  Mathematics is the Universal Language of Pure Logic
  
• “All of a sudden you just hear these terrible loud bangs of the Stanley [cup] bouncing off her head.”
  Trans student who beat 7th grader with Stanley Cup had 'hit list'

  ABORTION

• "Planned Parenthood, Planned Parenthood Votes, and Planned Parenthood Action PAC North Carolina said on Thursday that they would be spending $10 million in support of pro-abortion candidates. The groups also said they want to knock on over a million doors in opposition to Republican Lt. Governor Mark Robinson’s campaign for governor."
  Planned Parenthood To Spend $10 Million Against Pro-Life Candidates In 2024 Battleground State

  THE 2020 AND 2022ELECTION HEISTS & AFTERMATH

• "Canvassing won’t prove that a particular candidate won, but it can show that a new election must be held."
  Ensuring a Republican Victory

  DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY

• Bodycam footage obtained by WHAM on Friday depicts Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley refusing to stop her car after a police officer attempts to pull her over for speeding 55 mph in a 35 mph zone. Doorley instead drives home, calling the chief of police to complain on the way, and once met by officers in her driveway attempts to wield her position to evade responsibility for the offense.
  Bodycam Footage Shows Blue State DA Cursing Out, Disobeying Cop After Speeding Away From Traffic Stop

  POLITICS

• "When third-party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Jill Stein, and Cornel West are added into the field, Trump’s lead over Biden grows to nearly double digits. In that multi-candidate scenario, Trump is at 42 percent, Biden is down at 33 percent, Kennedy is at 16 percent, West at 4 percent, and Stein at 3 percent."
  Donald Trump Takes Biggest Lead Ever Over Joe Biden in XiNN Poll, Third-Party Candidates Expand Trump Lead
  
• "Since Kennedy switched his party affiliation from Democrat to independent in October, polling has largely suggested he’s more of a threat to Biden’s campaign than Trump’s. However, several recent polls have found the independent’s presence on the ballot hindering Trump’s candidacy, spurring questions about who Kennedy will eventually take votes from in November." (Meh, see the previous link. He can only hurt the vegetable - jjs)
  RFK Jr. is Poised to Tilt the Presidential Race — But It’s Still Not Clear to Whom
  
• Roger Kimball: "A Rubicon has been crossed, and advance troops are already besieging various outposts of our taken-for-granted institutions and assumptions about our social lives."
  Shock and Awe on the Campaign Trail
  
• The meeting was set up in hopes the two would repair their strained relationship, but Trump advisors were hoping DeSantis would help raise significant sums for the general election through his donor network, according to The Washington Post. The meeting, which was “mutually agreed upon and arranged by [real estate mogul] Steve Witkoff,” lasted for several hours, with DeSantis agreeing to help the former president, Burns reported.
  DeSantis, Donald Trump Discuss Détente In Miami
  
• "They attack and attack and attack Donald Trump, expecting his poll numbers to collapse. And yet. . . "
  The Democrats Validate an Einstein Postulation
  
• "A wild ride through the Sir Robin of political parties."
  The Gutless Old Party
  
• "Governor Spencer Cox received 32.46% of the vote from delegates during the second round of voting while Rep. Phil Lyman received 67.54%, making Lyman the winner, according to state delegate Aaron Bullen, who shared the results with the Daily Caller. Lyman is known for supporting former President Donald Trump, according to various posts on his social media."
  Trump-Aligned Candidate Phil Lyman Upsets Incumbent Governor Spencer Cox at Utah GOP Convention
  
• "McGuire has touted his support for Israel, earning him an endorsement from the Republican Jewish Committee. He's also backed by SEAL PAC, a group that supports conservative veterans."
  Send in the SEAL: Combat Vet Sets Sights on Congress From Central Virginia

  THE UKRAINIAN "FRONT"

• "I think we’ve sort of refocused on the importance of playing the kind of role that we need to play in the world. It’s in our interest. None of this is charity and the whole democratic world is in favor of what we did this week."
  McYertle McConnell: Military Aid "Is Not Charity to Ukraine," U.S. Jobs Are Being Created (Lots of crack whore and assistant crack whore jobs being filled! - jjs)
  
• "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that the United States and Ukrainian governments are “working on a bilateral security agreement” that would result in sending additional monetary aid to Ukraine over the next ten years." (Now I'm really rootin' for Putin - jjs)
  Zelensky Reveals U.S. and Ukraine ‘Working’ on Scheme for 10 Years of Military Aid
  
• Despite this assessment, U.S. [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden continues to hold Putin accountable for Navalny’s demise, leading to increased U.S. sanctions on Russia. In comparison, former President Donald Trump expressed uncertainty when questioned about Putin’s involvement in Navalny’s death."
  U.S. Intel Suggests Putin Did NOT Orchestrate Navalny Death

  FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL

• "As of the last week of April 2024, China has not invaded Taiwan. Does this mean that Taiwan and the international community can breathe a collective sigh of relief?"
  Is China Rethinking its Invasion of Taiwan?
  
• "Hectoring world leaders with idle threats."
  Biden’s Paper Tiger
  
• “Let’s put everything on the table and look at what truly protects us in a credible way,” he continued, but maintained that France would keep “its specificity but is ready to contribute more to the defence of European soil”.
  Trot-Boffing Macron Suggests Arming EU with Nuclear Weapons for ‘Credible’ Defence
  
• "Europe has failed to develop into the mature strategic partner the United States needs."
  Europe: With Friends Like These …
  
• "Far greater U.S. involvement is necessary to stand with its Filipino ally. The U.S. response has been far from ideal and has failed to reassure Manila, one of America’s oldest allies."
  The Philippines Is a Great Ally, and the U.S. Needs to Recognize It

  DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS

• "The videos featuring the personnel in bathroom stalls had been uploaded to Pornhub and appeared to be “secretly shot,” but were taken down within days of being reported to the Navy Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), according to court documents obtained by Military.com. A NCIS agent investigating how the videos were uploaded later obtained subscriber details from Pornhub after obtaining a subpoena and later a search warrant, according to Pacific Daily News."
  Over 100 ‘Secretly Shot’ Pornographic Videos Of Naval Service Members Uploaded Online: REPORT

  DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE COURTS, WASTE/FRAUD/ABUSE

• "If Biden gets to nominate two replacements for two justices, he will reshape the composition of the Supreme Court." (As if SCOTUS will even matter anymore if he "wins" nudge-nudge wink-wink - jjs)
  The Real Stakes in the 2024 Election
  
• "The decision will return land-use fees and exactions to some semblance of reason and fairness."
  Supreme Court Curbs Land-Use Fees: Sheetz v. El Dorado County
  
• "Buried in [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Biden’s State of the Union housing proposals was one good idea: remove government barriers to new construction."
  Just Get Out of the Way

  HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

• "It’s not bird flu that’s spreading among humans, it’s the panic being pushed by the American press."
  Biden Junta Races to Reassure Americans as Bird Flu Fear Spreads
  
• "But too often Britain's courts and medical industry have prioritized profits over the lives of children."
  Britain Allows Child To Travel to Vatican Hospital for Treatment
  
• Critics, including former Harvard Medical School dean Jeffrey Flier, have denounced UCLA’s curriculum as promoting political ideology over actual medical education. Flier stated that the curriculum “promotes extensive and dangerous misinformation” and that the college has “centered this required course on a socialist/Marxist ideology that is totally inappropriate.”
  UCLA med school faces backlash for requiring woke, 'fatphobia' courses

  FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY

• Brian C. Joondeph, M.D.: "Women need to say 'no' to competing with biologic males in athletic competitions. Some are..."
  Women Forced to Compete Against Men? Just Say No!

  CULTURE WARS, NATIONAL SUICIDE

• "Now, Hillary herself had very little to do with the show. They gave her a producer credit, slapped her name on promos and she showed up for some pictures — and that’s about it, it seems. Yet her signature mix of arrogance and resentment shined through in nearly every scene."
  Suffragette? More Like Suffering And Regret. Hillary Clinton’s New Musical Made Me Want To Gouge My Eyes Out
  
• Scott McKay: "Showbiz spits out dimwits."
  Five Quick Things: Maybe They’re Just Stupid
  
• "American civilization is breaking down, and there will be no fixing things until morality returns."
  Moral Anarchy: An Understatement
  
• “I know a lot of people are sort of cynical about the increasing interest in Christianity and the return to God, but to me it’s obvious. As meaning deteriorates in the modern world, as our value systems and institutions crumble, all of us become increasingly aware that there is this eerily familiar awakening and beckoning figure that we’ve all known all of our lives within us and around us.”
  Russell Brand Announces Upcoming Baptism: "Opportunity to . . . be Reborn in Christ's Name"
  
• Christian Toto: "Unfrosted director/star says stand-up comedians offer best chance for free speech."
  Jerry Seinfeld Blames "Extreme Left," "PC Crap" for Comedy Decline
  
• David Harsanyi: "Stop feeding the victimhood complex."
  Is the Economy Behind the Low Birth Rate? Unlikely

  HITHER & YON

• "Japan is a sensible, welcoming island nation with moderate immigration and environmental policies."
  A Passover in Japan
  
• "Is the rise of digital media causing the fall of literacy?"
  The Death of Gutenberg (Not Steve - jjs)

NOTE: The opinions expressed in the links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.

ALSO: The Morning Report is cross-posted at CutJibNewsletter.com if you want to continue the conversation all day.

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TIP JAR : Your support helps keep the lights on and is truly appreciated. Note: We are on Stripe, not PayPal.

Tech News

• MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria talks AI hype and database evolution. (Tech Crunch)
  
  To clarify: He says that AI is mostly hype:

  "My life has not been transformed by AI," he said. "Yes, maybe I can write an email better through all those assistants, but it's not fundamentally transformed my life. Whereas the internet has completely transformed my life."

  In fact, most of what he says here is refreshingly sensible:

  "There's probably like 17 different types of databases, and probably about 300 vendors," Ittycheria said. "There's no customer on this planet that wants to have 17 different databases. The complexity that creates, and the cost of learning, supporting and managing those different technologies becomes overwhelming. It also inhibits innovation, because it creates this tax of complexity."

  I'm still meh on MongoDB's license structure, but I recognise the necessity to prevent Amazon simply draining their blood and discarding the lifeless husk.
  
  
  
• Huawei's Pura 70 contains SMIC 7nm technology, and also unicorn farts. (The Register)
  
  SMIC doesn't have 7nm technology. It has 14nm with multi-patterning.
  
  
  
• The US is reviewing the risks of China gaining a lead in RISC-V technology. (Reuters)
  
  I'm sure they are, but it's irrelevant. RISC-V is an open standard; anyone can create their own implementations of it.
  
  If you don't like that, build something better yourself.
  
  
  
• American Airlines still hasn't properly fixed its Y2K problems. (BBC)
  
  A 101-year-old frequent flier keeps being assigned a baby seat.

Ah good old school daze......‘Utterly unprincipled’: Policy created on eve of protest used to make arrests

Since 1969, an IU Bloomington policy has allowed the use of temporary structures in Dunn Meadow without prior approval, forbidding them from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. IU changed the policy to ban the use of structures without prior approval April 24 — a day before the IU Divestment Coalition set up encampments in Dunn Meadow on Thursday.

The new policy, which can be viewed under the “Outdoor Spaces” dropdown menu on the Office of Student Life website, forbids the use of permanent or temporary structures without approval by the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Life and University Events. The policy change cited a section of the 1969 policy that suggested the creation of a committee by the Bloomington provost to give “continuing advice on changes of policy” and review denials of permission for “uncarried overnight signs, symbols or structures.” It suggests a small committee for prompt action if review is ever needed.

British troops may be tasked with delivering aid to Gaza from an offshore pier now under construction by the U.S. military, the BBC reported Saturday. U.K. government officials declined to comment on the report.

According to the BBC, the British government is considering deploying troops to drive the trucks that will carry aid from the pier along a floating causeway to the shore. No decision has been made and the proposal hasn’t yet reached Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the BBC reported, citing unidentified government sources.

Please pass the buttered popcorn. Thank you.

A former DEI manager and Instagram model is suing the University of Minnesota for firing her over a photo that showed her posing near an Israeli flag emblazoned with swastikas.

In the filing this week, Mashal Sherzad accused the school of violating her First Amendment rights as well as discrimination, the Star Tribune reported.

She also asked to have her job reinstated and wants more than $75,000 in damages.

This is how you wake up sleeping terrorists at UCLA.

No, it wasn't a range war. But a battle to be a Genius Award Winner. We have Co-Champs tonight.

Men in Orleans cited after fight over loose pigs

For an occasional air traveler such as the Fabulous and I this is Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

In a significant move for air travelers, the Department of Transportation unveiled groundbreaking regulations on Wednesday.

These new guidelines mandate airlines to automatically reimburse passengers in cash for flights that are canceled or face substantial delays.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Obsession. (Photo H/T Sharon, Willow's Apprentice)

Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire & AceCorp, LLC. Cob's wardrobe provided by G. Will Menswear & Lawn Decorations, Ltd., legal representation by Dewey, Cheatem & Howe, S. C. and last but not least dental insurance coverage from Dynamic Dental Insurance Co. Proud to be an American company of profound pencil pushers.

Last week we had a homework assignment. Did you do the homework? Did you watch the short video and come to the thread tonight prepared to discuss your thoughts with the group? Completing homework comprises 35% of your Gun Thread grade, so please tell me you watched the video, because failure to complete assignments on time can result in an unfavorable note being placed into your permanent record. Below is the video.

The video is from an attorney in WA who gives the legal perspective on what you can and cannot do when your car is surrounded by a mob of peaceful protestors. Your assignment was to place yourself in the driver's situation and decide what you would have done a) without first watching lawyer-guy, and 2) what if anything you might have done differently after watching lawyer-guy.

There was also a Bonus Question: Do you know the relevant law(s) in your state? How does it differ from what was described in the video?

Rather unfortunately I think the likelihood of our seeing these situations again will only go up in the upcoming summer and fall months. I very truly believe it's a very good idea to think of these sort of scenarios, and what your reaction might be in advance. The best way to avoid a situation like this is to never get into the situation in the first place but that isn't always possible. Angry mobs can and do spring up spontaneously, and you might find yourself in the middle of one despite your best efforts otherwise.

I have one word for you all and that is situational awareness. I do not want to be overly melodramatic here, but your door locks and rolled-up windows are not going to always protect you, particularly from a determined attack. Be aware of problematic activity in your area and avoid it. Whenever you are out and about, be constantly aware of your current situation and constantly update your best avenue of escape using your own basis for threat assessments. Whenever that threat assessment goes up, use the route of escape by executing the escape plan as soon as possible. Picking up a pack of Camels and a Slim-Jim isn't worth becoming the subject of a mob's attention. The instant something seems wrong, un-ass the area as quickly as possible, and at all costs avoid what happened to the guy in the video who was boxed in with nowhere to go.

Now, on to the discussion. What do all y'all think?

04/28/24 Note: One of the great joys of NoVAMoMe season, at least for me, is being able to cut and paste the entire block of text below and haranguing you to register for the event. Have you registered? Are you focusing on the fundamentals of registration?

Alright, guys and gals, the long awaited and highly anticipated opening of 2024 NoVAMoMe registration is upon us! That's right, registration for the event of the season is open, which means you can register to attend! You see, in order to attend, you must first register, and then wait for June 8th, and then attend! It's really more of an application to attend based on whether we like you or not, but what have you got to lose?!

Q: Weasel, your world frightens and confuses us. How do we, how do you say, register for the NoVAMoMe?
A: Welp, it's pretty darn easy!

First, check your calendars for June 8th, 2024, and cancel anything already planned. Good so far? Then simply send an email to WeaselBell Productions expressing your interest, then sit back and anxiously wait for a reply. Our pal and most delightful 'ette and MoMe Hostess Extraordinaire bluebell will review your application and relevant permanent record notations to decide if you're NoVAMoMe material. If you're one of the chosen, you'll get a reply with a link and secret password to the registration site containing all the pertinent details. Look these over and complete the simple registration form, following the PayPal link provided at the end of the form to make your payment. The $30 pp fee covers appetizers, dinner (BBQ Chicken, hamburdogs, sides, and dessert) plus an unlimited amount of fun! Since we must guarantee a headcount to the caterer, all registrations must be made online by May 26th. We are not accepting payment for registration at the door. You do not need a PayPal account to register and can pay with any major credit card.

A NoVAMoMe PSA from our pal bluebell

Hi folks - just a quick PSA. If you write for info about the MoMe, please give us a few words in the body of the email just so I know you are a Moron and not a spammer (moron). I do receive spam on this email account because it's sitting right here in my nic, so that's why I'm asking. I don't want to give our details to a spammer. Also, once registered, remember to check your spam folder if you don't receive a confirmation email.

Thanks.
bluebell

Seriously, just send an email, go to the site with the password provided, fill out the simple form, and make your payment. If you forget, a link to the email is on the main page, left sidebar. If you do not sign up, bluebell will be disappointed. Weasel will be disappointed, too, but it's bluebell you need to worry about.

Win a Dream Date with Weasel!
Due to popular demand, we are again conducting a separate raffle for a Dream Date with Weasel This fabulous prize includes an entire day of shooting and personalized one-on-one handgun & rifle coaching and instruction at Weasel Acres on a mutually agreeable date with yours truly. The lucky winner will be able to not only bring and shoot their own weapons, but also try out a variety of WeaselWeapons using WeaselAmmo!

We will end the day with dinner at a good Mexican place in nearby Appomattox. The winner will be responsible for their travel to and from Central Virginia, hence the separate drawing.

Don't be a pathetic girly-man loser, register today!

Q: Weasel, anything else for 2024?
A: Why I'm glad you asked! There are in fact TWO things to mention for 2024.

First, we are again having a pre-party get-together the afternoon/evening before the main event. Details at the registration site.

Dos, we are again offering a NoVAMoMe commemorative mug for 2024 available only to NoVAMoMe participants!

We sincerely hope you can join the festivities. I promise you this event is as laid back and non-anxiety inducing as humanly possible, and nothing makes me happier than to meet new people who have been reluctant to join in the past. If sitting on the sidelines and just observing is your thing, you can do just that with zero pressure from anyone. I hope some of the past NoVAMoMe participants will jump in and share their thoughts on the event to inspire the scairdy-cat lurkers out there to throw caution to the wind and sign up!

That's it, people. Email WeaselBell Productions today!

There are targets out there somewhere!

Saturday, March 23, I made it to my second silhouette match. But, the day before, I hit the range to check the zero stop I'd recently set up on my scope and practice that which Weaselsan Gunsei mentioned the previous week: fundamentals. (zero stop was spot on)

The first couple of shots were just bad, on my part, then I finally got settled in and put three shots in two holes. After that, I lost it for a shot, put one just high and left, settled back in and put another shot touching the first three.

From there, I moved to some different ammo and put three shots in basically two holes, show in the upper left target. (the ammo is some custom ammo I purchased for use in our local 1,000 yard match. I think it passes muster)

Now, on to the silhouette match: I first shot this match 3 months ago or so and didn't do all that well, which is to be expected. The match consists of 5 half size silhouettes at 200. 300, 400 and 500 meters for a total of 20 possible points. These are not big targets. The turkeys at 200 meters, are maybe 6" tall x 4" wide. The rams, at 500 meters are 6" tall but a bit wider, maybe 10". And it's not enough to just hit a target. The target needs to be knocked completely off the rail they are standing on. One thing I did have in my favor was my range book. In the course of my first match I noted the appropriate MOA elevation adjustment for each distance, which turned out to be spot on. Anyway, after everything was said and done, I went 5 for 5 and 200 and 400 meters, 4 for 5 at 500 meters. Unfortunately, 300 meters had me for lunch and I only got 2 out of 5. Drat.

One thing which caught be off guard was my new bipod. It turns out it was a bit taller than the previous one I had and my rear bag couldn't make up the height enough to bring the muzzle down on to the target. Now, I could have adjusted by moving the legs on the bipod to the forward 45 degree angle, but, I decided against it because I've never used or practiced with that set up. Instead, I used my hand on the bag to get the rifle high enough to be on target. Which was another lesson learned and necessitates further practice trips to the range.

Darn.

This, people, is how you become a better shooter. Very nicely done Blake!

Georgia Arms is having a sale: 10% off storewide and free shipping on orders more than $250.

Sounds like a deal to me.

It's about time we had some Dr. Frank!

Cigar of the Week

This week our pal Diogenes scores with this excellent review of the La Gloria Cubana Classic

The first thing you notice about this cigar is how hard it is to the touch, it felt almost like a cardboard tube. That always makes me wonder if it is going to be a difficult cigar to smoke, hard to draw and hard to keep lit. Not the case here. The Classic has an Ecuadoran Sumatra wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder plus a Dominican/Nicaraguan filler. Their web site calls this a medium bodied cigar and I concur. I found it to be a pleasant smoke with a spicy start followed by flavors of chocolate and leather. The middle third provided a very smooth and relaxing tobacco flavor. The cedar finish is noteworthy and very pleasant. Cigar Aficionado gives it a very respectable 92 rating. I liked this cigar. Nothing fancy, nothing outrageous. Just a good peasant smoke and depending on where you shop, a reasonable value.

Excellent, Diogenes! Thank you very mucho!

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.

Cigarsinternational.com
Cigarpage.com
Famous-smoke.com
Cigarsdaily.com
Neptunecigar.com
Smallbatchcigar.com
Bobalu Cigar Company
Cigarbid.com
Nicks Cigar World New!

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!

Ammo Link-O-Rama
I'm really very seriously not kidding around anymore. Buy Ammo
AmmoSeek - online ammo search tool
GunBot - online ammo search tool
SG Ammo
Palmetto State Armory
Georgia Arms
AmmoMan
Target Sports USA
Bud's Gun Shop
American Elite Ammo NEW!

This week's mailbag entry is from our pal ShortBusRider. Will you look at that smile!

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 service! Lots of entry-level jobs in the industry, and they are perfect for kids starting out in the job market, when they have literally no job skills and have to be taught to do everything valuable. Sure...it's easy to teach a kid with half a brain how to flip burgers, but the act of keeping a job is at least as important a lesson as the skill learned.

But crank that entry-level wage to a point at which it simply does not make financial sense to hire that well-meaning but skill-less kid, and businesses large and small will make due without. They will find alternatives, as economic law demands.

Short version? Democrats are stupid.

[Hat Tip: Jay Guevara]

That's from the rather impressive kitchen of a lurker who goes by the name of "Marty." Crunchy pork belly is rarely a bad thing, although "Marty" is not completely happy with this version. Sadly he didn't discard it onto my plate, so I might need to have a bit of a chat with him.

Pork belly is a grand food, and a great bang for the buck. Crunchy and rich and unctuous and absolutely delicious, and very affordable too. There are tons of recipes for it, and while some are better than others, it's one of those dishes that tastes pretty good even if the recipe is "eh," and the execution is crappy too.

Matzo Brei! Or Matzoh Brei!

Broken-up matzoh, eggs, onion powder, salt and pepper.

Yup. Complicated.

I like to get the matzoh nice and soaked, so the crunch comes from the exterior that is fried in butter.

And if you think that you are going to get away with putting syrup on it, You are nuts! The 11th Commandment is, "Thou Shalt Not Eat Matzoh Brei With Syrup!" It's cream cheese, sour cream, or butter. That's it.

Geoffrey Zakarian Explains Why Restaurant French Toast Tastes So Much Better Than Homemade

What he is actually saying is that some people make crap French Toast at home. Of course some people make great French Toast at home!

Unsaid is the reality that there is plenty of mediocre French Toast being pumped out by restaurants across America.

I hate these sorts of articles.

Now get out of my kitchen!

[Hat Tip: Misanthropic Humanitarian]

Before you laugh at this (like I did), realize that it actually tastes pretty good! I have a relative who is trying "gluten free," although to her credit she isn't a lunatic about it. She brought these over for the Seder, and of course I had to try them. They aren't Kosher for Passover according to the Askenazi tradition, but I'll give anything a try (especially since my great-grandmother was Sephardic).

And they were pretty damned good! Which irritates the hell out of me.

Who are those poor deluded souls who shake their Manhattans? These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.

However, I will give dispensation to those who use maple syrup on Brussels Sprouts! I tried that and it worked nicely. I still prefer Agave, but still...

And yes, I used to demand fancy bourbon, but let's face it, $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.

PIC NOTE

I was going to use this picture last week, but then the picture of the One Ring showed up in my Inbox by chance and I could not pass that up. This week's pic is just one of those random pictures of libraries you can find all over the internet. This one stood out to me because there is NO WAY that I could stand having my library look like that. Horizontally arranged books just don't work for me at all. Yes, it's easier to read the spines because you don't have to tilt your head sideways. However, it's difficult to pull books from the bottom of the stack off the shelf and it's equally difficult to return them.

THE PURPOSE OF LORE AND CANON

Carl Benjamin, aka "Sargon of Akkad," went on a tear recently on the importance of lore and canon in preserving carefully crafted worlds, especially those that span multiple media with numerous creators. The people involved in crafting those worlds often rely on the lore and canon in order to keep any additional disruptive elements to a minimum so that the overall storyline is mostly consistent over time. It's a big challenge when you are dealing with a 40-year-old franchise that is based on a tabletop miniature wargame, but also has numerous spin-offs such as novels, video games, board games, at least one movie, and an upcoming television show (that may be stuck in development hell going forward). All of that needs to work together to satisfy the fans. They WANT the creators to be thoughtful, considerate custodians of the intellectual property.

As ace, Critical Drinker, and others have pointed out, the most recent controversy is the inclusion of women in the elite personal guard of the Emperor of Mankind. Up until now, Space Marines have been exclusively MEN. This especially true of the elite-of-the-elite, the Adeptus Custodes. There are units and factions within Warhammer 40K that are dominated by females, but the Space Marines have NEVER been among them. However, according to the recently updated Warhammer 40K Wiki, "The Custodes is an elite cadre of genetically-engineered transhuman male and female warriors who are even more potent in combat than the Adeptus Astartes." [Emphasis added -- PS]

This fundamentally breaks the lore in ways that will cause backwards ripples throughout the canon, as that change now has to be ret-conned into all previous media. Why have female Custodes never been featured in books and storylines before? How are they able to survive the incredibly grueling initiation process that kills most candidates? As this YouTuber points out, there are some changes that can be added to the lore with minimal disruption, but changes that affect the culture and society almost always cause great disruption to the story. Ursula K. Leguin--an early feminist icon in fantasy--wrestled with this idea when she returned to the Earthsea stories after a long hiatus. She ultimately decided that women in Earthsea could NOT be wizards, though there are plenty of women who have magical powers of their own. They just can't be called "wizards" and they cannot fulfill the same role in society. Wizarding was exclusively the domain of men.

Some authors are not all that concerned with their own canon and lore and just write whatever they feel like. H.P. Lovecraft allowed many, many authors to contribute to his Cthulhu Mythos, even when he might not have agreed with some of those changes. For instance, August Derleth added a category of godlike beings that was much more benevolent towards humanity than most of the Mythos, even protecting us at times from the callous disregard of Great Old Ones. Raymond E. Feist doesn't re-read his own books to keep his cosmology and history consistent throughout the Riftwar Saga, leading to odd discrepancies and contradictions from series to series.

\
(*sigh* My TBR pile grew again this week...See below)

LORE BREAKING -- WHEEL OF TIME EXAMPLE

NOTE: You may want to skip down to the comments section if you are not interested in this topic, as I intend to go into excruciating detail of one instance of critical lore breaking...

The following excerpt is the opening monologue of Season 1 Episode 1 of Amazon's Wheel of Time, which was first released in Fall 2021. The show is very loosely based on Robert Jordan's epic fantasy series--to the point where only some of the names are the same. The plot and character arcs have wildly diverged in the television series from those that are presented in the books. I've added emphasis to the statements that are contradictory to the source material. This information is presented to the casual viewers as canon exposition, but it's all a pack of lies and I'll demonstrate why in a moment.

The world is broken. Many, many years ago, men who were born with great power believed they could cage Darkness itself. The arrogance. When they failed, the seas boiled, mountains were swallowed up, cities burned, and the women of the Aes Sedai were left to pick up the pieces. These women remembered one thing above all else...the man who brought the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon. Now this man has been born again. We don't know where or to whom. If he was reborn as a girl or a boy. The only thing we know for certain is that this child is coming of age now, and we must find them...before the Dark does. -- Moiraine Damodred

Let's unpack the highlighted portions to examine WHY these statements are incorrect.

Many, many years ago, men who were born with great power believed they could cage Darkness itself

Three thousand years before the events of the main story, the War of Shadow tore the world apart because the Dark One had been freed from his eternal prison. Note that a WOMAN initiated his release, though she had help from others who sought greater power. It was up to a coalition of male and female channelers (magic-users) to attempt to put this evil genie back into the bottle. Unfortunately, only Lews Therin Telamon had a workable plan and could only find male channelers to assist him, as everyone else thought he was mad. So yes, it was MEN that attempted to "cage Darkness," but only because none of the female channelers could be persuaded to assist.

When they failed, the seas boiled, mountains were swallowed up, cities burned, and the women of the Aes Sedai were left to pick up the pieces<

Lews Therin Telamon didn't fail. He and his Hundred Companions (give or take) *succeeded* in sealing the Dark One back in his prison and used potent magical seals to patch over the breach in the Dark One's prison. Unfortunately, because only the male half of the True Source was used, this made the patch weaker than it should have been. The weakening of imperfect seals is the source of the conflict in the current Age. The Dark One was able to exact one last retaliatory strike before he was imprisoned again. The backlash from sealing the Bore tainted the entire male half of the True Source, causing all male channelers to go irrevocably insane. With their great power, they reshaped the world, causing the seas to boil and tearing down mountains over here while erecting even larger mountains over there. (Dragonmount is the site of Lews Therin's death, where he drilled a hole to the center of the planet with the One Power causing an enormous volcano to spew forth from the earth.) It wasn't their fault. Even Lews Therin succumbed to madness, killing everyone in his family--including his beloved wife and children--and earning the appellation "Kinslayer." Because the female channelers had not participated in the attempt to seal the Bore, their half of the True Source was untouched by the Dark One's taint. So yes, they were the only magic users sane enough to rebuild society.

And him they named Dragon

Lews Therin Telamon, the worldwide leader of all of the Aes Sedai (magic users), was already known as the Dragon during the War of Shadow. His banner was a serpentine, Oriental-style dragon on a field of white. Entire armies clashed with the armies of the Shadow under that banner. Because he was the most powerful channeler in the entire world and led the strike on the Dark One's stronghold at Shayol Ghul, his name was remembered well into the following Age, as he saved the world and broke it at the same time.

If he was reborn as a girl or a boy

This right here breaks the lore at a fundamental level. The world of the Wheel of Time is a strictly binary one when it comes to genders. There are men. There are women. Souls only come in those two flavors. Nothing in between. A certain percentage of female souls have the ability to wield the female half of the True Source. A certain percentage of male souls have the ability to wield the male half of the True Source. It *is* possible for a male soul to be implanted in a female body and vice versa, but that takes the intervention of the Dark One and very specific circumstances around one's death in order for that to happen. It becomes a plot point later in the books when the Dark One infiltrates the Aes Sedai with one of his remade Forsaken who can channel the male half of the True Source while wearing a female body (female channelers have a hard time detecting a man's channeling ability). The Dragon--in EVERY Age--is a man and will ALWAYS be a man, because he is the most powerful channeler of either gender in the entire world, in all the Ages that were and all the Ages that will be (time is circular in this series). It's simply not possible for the Dragon to be born as a girl. Period. The Creator would never allow it.

and we must find them...before the Dark does

Note the use of the word "them" in this context. Moiraine is using a gender-neutral pronoun to refer to the "child" in the previous sentence because in THIS bastardized lore, the Dragon can be either gender (contrary to the actual lore). Also note the use of the word "Dark" here. In the books, there is no such thing as "the Dark." Instead, the main antagonist is usually referred to as "the Dark One"--the most common appellation though he has a lot of other colorful names depending on one's culture, ethnicity, and species. If evil is referred to in more general terms, it's usually referred to as "the Shadow" in contrast to "the Light." This is somewhat of an interesting word choice, as a shadow relies on a light source in order to be cast, while darkness is the complete absence of light. It's implied in the story that the Creator (the Light) created the Dark One, and therefore could be the source of "the Shadow." The Creator (i.e., God) is also supposed to have sealed the Dark One in his prison at the beginning up time, and thus is more powerful than the Dark One. By referring to him as "Dark," then that implies equal or greater status with "Light."

As we can see in these examples, the television show just shat all over the source material in favor of its own nonsensical and inconsistent narrative. I counted a minimum of FIVE lore/canon breaks within just one paragraph of text that is spoken in less than two minutes. Even FJB would be hard-pressed to pack that many lies in that much time. The show does NOT get any better from there. And now the showrunners have to somehow find a way to finish their story in maybe one more season if they are lucky. (SPOILER: It will be a complete disaster, rivaling the finale of Game of Thrones in how much it disappoints its audience).

This desire by certain elements to *replace* existing lore instead of creating *new* lore is a direct manifestation of the evil that surrounds us. Both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were adamant that evil cannot create. It can only mutilate, pervert, corrupt, and destroy what the Creator (i.e., God) has made.

Moral of the story: Lore and canon MATTER, people! Violate it at your own risk.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Loren D. Estleman's Vamp: A Valentino Mystery is a fun accompaniment to our own MP4's Theda Bara tales. Val is a modern-day L.A. movie palace owner/restorer who, in this outing, in addition to helping a friend restore a drive-in, is also trying to save a long-lost print of the 1917 epic Cleopatra.

It has a ton of great one-liners: "L.A. has no landmarks, only placeholders for the next Tim Horton's."

Posted by: All Hail Eris at April 21, 2024 09:17 AM (3e3hy)

Comment: If you want a good snapshot of what life was like in Hollywood over a hundred years ago, Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing's Theda Bara stories are an excellent example. Interesting characters, lively dialog, and just nice slice-of-life prose to make you feel immersed in that time. Sounds like Estelman's story takes a similar approach, but uses a modern setting in addition to the older Hollywood.

A cousin gifted me with Athenry by Cahal Dunne, mainly because he met the author at a pub in Pittsburgh, but also because the novel is well written and tells the true story behind the Great Famine. The story is an homage to a song called "The Fields of Athenry," which tells the tale of a young Irishman who is sentenced to the Australian penal colony for stealing a bag of grain to feed his starving family. Set in 1840s Ireland, the novel instructs the reader on the English penal code that enforced the English conquest of Ireland. Catholics were prohibited from practicing their religion, owning or leasing property, entering a profession, owning weapons, voting, living in a town, all in an attempt to render the Irish to the level of slaves. The story is gripping and the level of brutality of the English toward the Irish was stunning to me. (My knowledge of Irish history is not detailed.) The odyssey of Liam O'Donoghue as told in the novel is entertaining and I found it difficult to put the book down. Morality trumps inhumanity, and the love of family sustains Liam through his travails. The book has haunted me from the first page and I want to read it again later.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 21, 2024 09:49 AM (U3L4U)

Comment: "The Fields of Athenry" (song) was written in 1979 by Pete St. John and recorded by Danny Doyle. It seemed to capture the spirit of Ireland at the time remaining on the Irish charts for 72 weeks, though never reaching #1. Numerous artists have covered this song over the decades since, such as The Dubliners, The Dropkick Murphys, and Michael freakin' Jackson. I listened to a few of the covers on iTunes, but I think I like the Dropkick Murphys the best. It has a nice tempo to it compared to most.

Since I'm watching Streets of Laredo, the six-hour miniseries based on that novel by Larry McMurtry, I picked up the book at the library to re-read. Since McMurtry co-wrote the teleplay, it follows the novel very closely, down to individual lines of dialogue. On this one I'm not noticing his quirk of shifting viewpoint from one character to another in the same scene, sometimes even in the same paragraph.

What LMcM does better than anybody I've read in the Western genre is to create (or use actual historical) villains. Serial killers, not to put too fine a point on it: savage creatures like Blue Duck the Comanche, Mox Mox the "man-burner," Ahumado the vicious Mexican who traps people in pits and cages, and Joey Garza the merciless, blond, blue-eyed Mexican gunman. His heroes are classics like Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call, too, but his antagonists are pure evil and very memorable . . . as if Hannibal Lecter, Jame Gumb, and Francis Dolarhyde were transported to 1870s Texas.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 21, 2024 10:18 AM (omVj0)

Comment: It's good that the original author of the work apparently had enough creative control to keep the showrunners in line. We need more of that, I think, as so many adaptations are run off the rails by writers who have no clue what they are doing and deliberately disrespect the source material for their own political ideology. There's also an art to writing a good villain, one that is dangerous and menacing, but not so much that he becomes a caricature or a cartoonish super-villain. Drawing upon real-world examples for inspiration is a great way to add that villainous verisimilitude to your characters.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

Decipher by Stel Pavlou

Write down every conspiracy theory and nutty physics idea you can think of on slips of paper. Then put those slips of paper into a basket. Draw out anywhere between a dozen and a score of those slips of paper. Then craft a story around that. That's a good summary of the plot of Decipher, which is a veritable cornucopia of crazy conspiracy theories all jumbled up and mixed together in an entertaining Michael Crichton-esque tale that draws upon almost every Hollywood global disaster movie ever made. Here is just a sampling of what can be found in Decipher:

• Corrupt corporation seeking to exploit a newly found resource for fun and profit? Check.
• Equally corrupt CEO of said corporation attempting to grab the main phlebotinum in the story for profit? Check.
• Corrupt Vatican suppressing historical documented evidence about the upcoming end of the world? Check.
• Mysterious ruins created by an ancient race all linked together in a global network for an equally mysterious purpose? Check.
• Smart, sassy, sexy female scientist? Check.
• Cynical, world-weary anti-theist linguist who's only mission in life seems to be to disprove Christianity? Check.
• Somewhat optimistic physicist who knows a lot more than he's letting on? (Also directly inspired by Dr. Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park--Pavlou even plagiarizes a speech from him) Check.
• Unexplained solar storms that threaten the planet? Check.
• Jewish mysticism confirmed by the existence of golems? Check.
• Buckyball (Carbon-60) technology that can do whatever the plot demands? Check.
• Brink of war between the United States and another major power (in this case, China)? Check.
• The lost city of Atlantis rising again? Check.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Although it's not a great book by any means (quite a bit of formulaic writing in many places), it does hit all the right notes and somehow makes all of these conspiracy theories work together. Some of them are presented solely through exposition as the characters work out the details of the global apocalyptic threat they face. I won't spoil the ending, but it's quite inventive and creative. You *know* (more or less) how the end of the story will play out, but the final resolution throws in a couple of cool twists that are foreshadowed earlier in the book, but don't quite register until the characters have their "AHA!" moment at the end. Entertaining and fast-paced.

Shadow of the Leviathan Book 1 - The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

In typical Robert Jackson Bennett fashion, he drops you into the middle of a strange and bizarre world with little explanation (at first) about what is going on. Over the course of the first few chapters, he interleaves the strange worldbuilding in with the actual events of the story. In this case, he's created a Holmes and Watson mystery-solving duo, but also drawing upon Nero Wolfe to create the lead investigator. A man has been murdered in the most gruesome manner under seemingly impossible circumstances, with equally inscrutable motives. Figuring out what happened and who administered the fatal blow prove to be relatively simple. Now Ana and Din have determine the real culprit who hired the assassin and the true motives behind the murder. I think I've figured out why I enjoy Robert Jackson Bennett's stories so much. They are very similar to Brandon Sanderson's form of storytelling in many ways (with a lot more profanity). Bennett always has an exciting and satisfying conclusion, as well.

The Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F. Hamilton

This novel takes place within Hamilton's future history Commonwealth stories. It starts out a couple of hundred years before the events of the Void Trilogy (even though it was written several years later). Humans attempting to escape the galaxy to found a new extra-galactic colony are instead captured by the Void at the center of the Milky Way, where they have to learn to adapt to the strange new rules within the Void. Mental powers rule here instead of technology. They also have to defend themselves against a violent, shapeshifting race that seeks to dominate and replace the humans in the Void.

Three thousand Void years later, an infiltrator from the Commonwealth must unravel the secrets of the alien Fallers who are attempting to dominate the humans on Bienvenidos, as they may be they key to destroying the Void that threatens to overtake the external galaxy. To do that, he'll need to orchestrate a revolution to overthrow the current power structure.

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

• The Essential Life by author unknown -- This is a bit of a mystery. This book showed up on my doorstep this week, completely out of the blue. It did include a packing slip/invoice showing that it was sent to me by a man in Michigan unknown to me via eBay. It's quite a lovely book, actually, with a lot of excellent pictures and jam-packed with information about essential oils. Any Morons in Michigan want to 'fess up? I don't mind the gift. It was quite thoughtful.

The library in which I work (but do not work for) had their annual book sale this week. Naturally, I could not resist. I walked away with the following selections for the low, low price of $7 total.

• A Passion for Books: A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring For, and Appreciating Books edited by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan with a foreword by Ray Bradbury. -- This is exactly what it says on the cover: a book BY bibliophiles FOR bibliophiles.
• The Last American Vampire by Seth Grahame-Smith -- This is the sequel to his novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and follows the adventures of vampire Henry Sturges across the first part of the twentieth century through JFK's assassination.
• Edgar Allan Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe -- For $1, why not have a selection of his classic stories? Poe was very influential in both the mystery and horror genres.
• Darwin's Children by Greg Bear -- I've only read a handful of Greg Bear's stories, but I've enjoyed the ones I've read. So I decided to add a few more to my collection. This one features super-advanced children that may be conspiring to eliminate the "old" human race.
• Vitals by Greg Bear -- Ah, the quest for immortality...It seldom works out well.
• Psychlone by Greg Bear -- What happens when radical climate events develop a mind of their own? Or something to that effect...The blurb on the back of this book is quite vague.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 04-21-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Don't drink the Amontillado!

Tech News

• Speaking of which, if you're bored you can watch the Ars commentariat tie itself into knots explaining why Germany's move from clean, safe, reliable nuclear power to the dirtiest of dirty coal - they burn lignite - is good for the environment. (Ars Technica)
  
  Or not. Actually, I'd recommend not. Though some of the comments are good:

  Not sure what these numbers mean. According to Wikipedia consumed energy in Germany was 76 percent fossil in 2023 (including a lot of lignite which is amongst the dirtiest coals). Also to note, over the years Germany has imported more and more energy from France (biggest nuclear park) to compensate for the closure of their own nuclear plants so in a way they have just outsourced their nuclear. And last, electricity prices in Germany are amongst the most expensive in Europe. All this sounds a little less shiny than the article?

  They could try burning Ars readers but they're probably too wet.
  
  
  
• The Eurocom 780W AC Power Adapter review. (AnandTech)
  
  780W is unremarkable for a computer power supply these days, though this has some nice features like running on mains power anywhere from 90 to 264 volts, and being able to sustain a 25% overload - right on 1000W of power draw - almost indefinitely.
  
  That's 20 volts out at 50 amps.
  
  Because this is a laptop power supply.
  
  
  
• Proxmox 8.2 is out. (Serve the Home)
  
  Proxmox VE is a pretty neat server virtualisation and management system based on a customised Ubuntu kernel. I've been meaning to set it up at home for a long time, but it's been a while since I had a standalone server that wasn't in use.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which, I've spent the weekend engaging in necromancy.
  
  Apart from the new Asus laptop (the one that refused to talk to the nice 2TB Team MP44 I bought for it) and the three cheap Beelink mini-PCs I bought to build a Linux cluster, I also had four old laptops sitting around.
  
  So I got everything assembled in what is nominally the music room (and in fact does contain an Akai midi keyboard) and I'm working through a long list of hardware upgrades that I already have the parts for, and an even longer list of software upgrades.
  
  At the end of it I'll have eight - probably nine, actually - working computers instead of just the one.
  
  It's all fun and games as usual. I couldn't remember the password on one of the laptops, so I stuck in the Windows 10 install drive and told it to reinstall.
  
  The Windows installer reported that it couldn't find the SSD.
  
  Fortunately I had another identical laptop that I could log in to, so I created a recovery drive from that, and with that I could reinstall Windows.
  
  Those two will soon have 64GB of RAM and 4TB of SSD each. The laptops and their upgrades have been sitting around waiting for me to have time to attend to them since February.
  
  Of 2022.
  
  
  
• The walls of Apple's garden are tumbling down. (The Verge)
  
  You do know that you could just not buy iPhones, right?
  
  
  
• Speaking of which, I also set up my Moto G14 today.
  
  Great screen.
  
  Works well.
  
  1080x2400 screen, 50 megapixel camera, two A75 plus six A55 cores, which is fine for me, though I'd avoid anything that was A55 only, and a headphone jack and microSD slot, which many phones at ten times the price don't have.
  
  Dirt cheap - I paid about $110 on sale for the 4GB / 128GB model.
  
  This is to replace the Oppo phone I've been using as my on-call pager because that one died of battery bloat.
  
  I'd recommend it but it's not available in the US.
  
  Also it talks when you boot it up, which I could do without.
  
  
  
• Tech gadgets are adding AI whether you like it or not. (Ars Technica)
  
  Actually, the case cited doesn't even involve adding AI. It's a new Logitech mouse with a dedicated AI button... Which pops up a menu on Windows.
  
  That's it.

The following is a fun and safe link. Trust me. Would I pull a Yoko on you?

I do not own a pair of crocs. But, I will admit to owning Fleetwood Mac's LP Rumors. It seems I'm not the only one.

How Fleetwood Mac Got Cool Again
Why do young people keep rediscovering Rumours? It’s in part because of a song that’s not even on the album.

Catchy music. Great vocals, lyrics people can relate to are only a couple of thoughts.

Do you enjoy the great outdoors? Do you enjoy hiking? Have some travel planned? The Best Hike in Every State

Alpine scrambles and beachfront strolls; multi-day singletrack adventures and quick urban escapes; soaring trees and rolling sand dunes—every state in the country has something to offer intrepid hikers. So we rounded up a bucket-list-worthy, best-of-the-best guide.

Isn't social media just grand? Ads for Explicit ‘AI Girlfriends’ Are Swarming Facebook and Instagram

WIRED found thousands of ads running on Meta’s social platforms promoting sexually explicit “AI girlfriend” apps. Some human sex workers say the platform unfairly polices their own posts more harshly.

Mis Hum:
I am saddened to report that Alex Hassilev, the last original member of the 1960s folk music group The Limeliters, passed away yesterday (4/21/24) at age 91. The Limeliters burst upon the music scene in the early 60s with their mix of harmony, comedy, and international music. The lead singer was tenor Glenn Yarbrough, and Lou Gottlieb provided a lot of the jokes. Their "Through Children's Eyes" album is a classic. Alex Hassilev was fluent in many languages and helped provide that flair to the repertoire. - Isophorone Blog

I'm not saying the next story involves a Genius Award or not. That being said, going into feed wild bears with food is certainly an invitation for mayhem.

ZOO HORROR Shocking moment zookeeper is pinned down by two pandas who chase her down inside enclosure during feeding time
Another zookeeper tried to help but the situation only worsened

The disguise in this story wouldn't pass as a Halloween costume. Genius Award Winner.

In addition to his mugshot, the Glades County Sheriff's Office also released a photo of the man as he was arrested -- showing his failed attempt at going incognito.
The photo above is what Joshua Kolotka looked like when he posed for his mugshot in Lakeport, Florida -- but it sure wasn't how he appeared when he was apprehended by police.

In a release from the Glades County Sheriff's Office, authorities claimed Kolotka tried his best to evade deputies by going incognito, wearing a wig and dress to avoid arrest.

It didn't work.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Rest & Refreshment.

Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire's hall monitors & cafeteria workers.

Ryan Brickson Cole Tews plays Jean Kayak, a furrier in the frontier days of the country, and in the movie's setup, we see that he is a great grower of apples—and a great purveyor of applejack, to which he finds himself in thrall. His drunkenness causes him to lose his factory and apple groves, to say nothing of his reputation, and he must find another way to survive in the perpetual winter of Wisconsin (or possibly Michigan).

He attempts to trap animals for food and fails miserably, but ultimately ends up teaming up with The Master Fur Trapper, who teaches him all the tricks. When The Master meets an untimely demise, he strikes out on his own, trading with The Merchant, who runs his shop exactly like one you might find in a computer role-playing game. A knife is one penny, a rope is two pennies, a pipe is three beavers, and so on.

Did I say "like" a video game? I mean...EXACTLY THE SAME AS.

In this way, our hero "levels up" and captures more and more pelts of various sorts.

But what he really wants is The Merchant's daughter, and The Merchant demands hundreds of beavers in order to purchase an engagement ring.

But while Jean Kayak has been struggling to get ahead in the wolf-eat-dog world of fur trapping, the beavers have been making their own, possibly sinister, plans. (Even in retrospect, I'm not sure the industrious beavers were exactly villainous. It's more a collision of world views.)

Will Jean Kayak survive the frontier? Will he get the girl? Will he be able to survive hundreds of beavers?

If the little clues didn't tip you off Hundreds of Beavers (which is fun to say and type) is a comedy, brought to you by the masterminds that made Lake Michigan Monster. Without a lot of money, and with a lot of resourcefulness and creativity, Tews and director/co-writer Mike Cheslik have created a new, old kind of comedy.

The lovely Miss Graves skins a beaver. (She's also a proficient pole dancer!)

Filmed in black-and-white (in part to hide the low-budget) and "silent" (in terms of having almost no dialogue), HoB uses the tropes and gag mechanics of the silent era and Looney Toons, then blends them with video game tropes, and non-stop, wall-to-wall gag which hit way more often than not.

I mean, by the time you're registering that a joke didn't quite hit, there have been two others that did. And, almost shockingly—because who remembers how to do comedy these days?—a lot of times, the joke that only got a little smile out of you comes back later in different forms, funnier each time it comes back.

Like The General or The Gold Rush (which it cannot help but evoke), or a Road Runner cartoon, the movie trains you in its comedic language. For example, there's a gag involving a wolf whistle, which inexplicably summons an enraged woodpecker. OK, kind of cute in context, but not hilarious. As the movie goes on, Jean Kayak finds himself repeatedly tormented by said woodpecker, but ultimately finds a way to exploit this mechanism to his advantage.

On trial for beaver crimes.

It's so ingrained that by the end of the movie, you're just laughing at the whistle itself. A month later when seeing a different film, I poked my head into the theater showing HoB, heard the whistle, and laughed without even seeing what was on screen. (And the theater was about 2/3rds full.)

My only complaint, if I had to make one, was that it was slightly too long, in particular a very video-game-y segment in the third act.

But this is a quibble. I haven't seen a new movie this funny in years and I don't expect to see another until these guys do a follow-up.

Made on a budget of $200,000—apparently the various costumes cost $10K each!—it has broken $300K at the box office, playing week-after-week—three months as of today, in fact—playing in about a dozen theaters nationwide. It's the sort of film you drag your friends to.

Tews is perfect, as he was in Lake Michigan Monster, and Wes Tanks (as The Master Fur Trapper) and Doug Mancheski (as The Trader) are great in their roles. A special shout-out to Olivia Graves as Kayak's love interest, who enjoys tormenting her suitor. This is a tricky role just because we're rooting for Tews and she's making his life hard, but in a charmingly ridiculous way.

Another point of interest is Luis Rico, who plays The Indian Fur Trapper, and whose part is laden with classic Amerind movie tropes. I'm not foolish enough to believe we've gotten past our cultural madness, but it was sure nice to see a bunch of "injun jokes" that people were laughing at, without a single dudgeon being raised on high.

If you're not fortunate enough to be living near one of the dozen theaters it's in, it is available for streaming on Amazon and Apple, and will be available for purchase in a few weeks.

This is also as close to a "general recommendation" movie as I get these days. You almost have to be anti-comedy to not be able to appreciate this. Heck, you could be anti-comedy and just appreciate the craftsmanship here. The writing—the sheer effort that must have gone into packing in hundreds of gags—is admirable just as a work of art.

Plus, it's a Christmas movie!

Other Films Of Note:

Chocolat (1988): Not the 2000 Johnny Depp/Juliet Binoche romance but a "slice of life" memoir about French Cameroon in the '50s. Beautifully shot with a competent (and good looking) cast, but not a lot to say for itself.

Late Night With The Devil: Breakout horror hit of the year, this "found footage" film stretches (and even breaks) the boundaries of the genre to provide a very compelling experience.

Remembering Gene Wilder: A fun documentary narrated by Wilder, and hitting the highlights of his career. A lot of smiles with the mandatory memento mori end.

Arcadian: Nicolas Cage indulges his agent, who wrote this thinly plotted horror which makes less and less sense the more you think about it.

Le Samourai (1967): Classic French noir about a hitman with a code, complete with made-up quote from the Bushido. Hard-boiled inspiration for every filmmaker dabbling in noir ever since.

The Teacher's Lounge:  Moral uncertainty plagues a German school, leading one teacher (a Pole) to an increasingly tenuous career position. Fine acting and buildup puts the writers into a corner they don't dare try to get out of in this Oscar-nominated film.

Chinatown (1974): The fiftieth anniversary of the Best Picture Oscar-winner that reminds you that Jack Nicholson used to put out some amazingly subtle performances before becoming a caricature of himself, and Roman Polanski could direct a great film, no matter how big a creep:

The Pianist (2002): We're in-between the 20th and 25th anniversary, making me wonder if this isn't part of a(nother) push to rehab Polanski by reminding us that, even as recently as 2002, he could direct a hell of a film. Adrien Brody's breakout role.

Woman in the Dunes (1964): The highest rated film I've seen in the past year (with an 8.5 on IMDB), this tells the story of an entomologist trapped in a pit with a woman for two-and-a-half hours. I don't think I "got" this one.

The Taste of Things: I loved this movie about a 19th century French gourmand and his lifelong chef/lover. The first hour-and-a-half is mostly cooking, but it slows down after that a little. Juliette Binoche looks rather good naked even at sixty.

Perfect Days: Wim Wenders gives us a story of a peaceful, happy toilet cleaner in Japan, whose life is touched by the chaos in others', but only just. A drama for people who don't like drama.

Amelie (2001): Jeunet's classic love-song to Paris is as charming as ever—a rare film where the heroine is a coward, or is overcoming her cowardice—and even more remarkable in its resemblance to A Christmas Story. That is to say, it was a nostalgic film at the time, and of a time that is so far gone, nary a trace remains.

With a little searching, you can find HoB posters for "Reservoir Dogs", "Sleepless In Seattle", "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and many others.