Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
"Protesters" Now Assaulting Random People on the Streets of Minneapolis Hunting for ICE Agents and Invading Churches
—Ace
Major Error: I had intended to fix a typo in this post, but I accidentally put it back into draft. So apparently this post was only up for five minutes, and there was no new content on the blog until 1:30.
Sorry. I'm going to put this post back up for a while.
...
When leftists passed the FACE Act, to make it illegal to protest outside an abortion clinic, jackass Republicans went along with it, but insisted that it also make disrupting/"protesting" a church service as well. (I say they're jackasses because they didn't block this law entirely.)
Leftists are now violating the FACE Act that Biden used to throw peaceful protesters in jail.
DOJ investigating Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over alleged conspiracy to impede immigration agents
The Justice Department is investigating Minnesota officials, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, over an alleged conspiracy to impede federal immigration agents, an extraordinary escalation in the Trump administration's clash with Democratic leaders there, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
One of the sources, a U.S. official, said the investigation stems from statements that Walz and Frey have made about the thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents deployed to the Minneapolis region in recent weeks.
Subpoenas are likely to be issued in the probe, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
...
Walz and Frey, both Democrats, have vocally denounced the federal deployment to the Twin Cities, accusing federal agents of creating chaos and undermining public safety through aggressive tactics.
Earlier this week, Frey said the federal deployment had created a situation that was "not sustainable."
"We're in a position right now where we have residents that are asking the very limited number of police officers that we have to fight ICE agents on the street," Frey said. "We cannot be at a place right now in America where we have two governmental entities that are literally fighting one another."
...
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who visited Minneapolis with FBI Director Kash Patel on Friday, appeared to make a vague reference to the investigation earlier this week.
"Walz and Frey- I'm focused on stopping YOU from your terrorism by whatever means necessary. This is not a threat. It's a promise," Blanche wrote on X earlier this week.
They also should be investigated for refusing to arrest antifa and other violent anarchists for attacking citizens in the street:
Stephen L. Miller
@redsteeze
So to catch you up on events:
- Protest group chased two innocent dudes out of a diner.
- Attacked an innocent guy on the street who was actually with them.
- Harassed an innocent guy with an SUV and demanded to see his ID.
- Blocked an innocent guy because of his rental car plates
- Have now stormed into church services.
And I haven't seen a single Minneapolis police officer in any of the previous week's video footage.
A mob of extremists raided a church, hunting a pastor they claimed was secretly an ICE agent.
This is insane. It's also illegal.
🚨BREAKING: William Kelly and a mob of anti-ICE extremists stormed a Cities Church in Minneapolis, disrupting a worship service and hurling baseless accusations that one of the church’s lead pastors is an ICE agent. pic.twitter.com/QYl7q9gkwz
2 - He would have never barged into a Mosque and live-streamed a "protest" if Muslims were involved. This was a direct attack on Christians.
3 - This is what a FACE Act violation is:
"FACE Act violations involve using force, threats, or physical obstruction to interfere with access to places of worship. The FACE Act makes it illegal to intimidate, injure, or obstruct patients, providers, or religious attendees."
Don Lemon and his comrades deserve to be investigated and charged.
Lemon is now talking tough to the "right wing fake media" insisting he didn't violate the FACE act because he was Making a Journolizm, but his statements before he illegally invaded the church make it clear that he was just another scumbag antifa protester. Just one not wearing a mask.
This makes it cleat that Lemon was present as part of the "protest," not a disinterested "journalist." The woman he's kissing is the lead organizer of the illegal protest.
This is Don Lemon giving the organizer of the event a kiss on the cheek before interviewing her. He was totally in on it. He intentionally made sure not to disclose any details of the operation so people wouldn't get tipped off. https://t.co/IdaeFU0F3npic.twitter.com/o0wZHnSLHZ
The organizer of the event -- a lawyer who should definitely be prosecuted -- thanked Lemon for joining the protest. And, I guess, for kissing her fat face.
Disgraced former CNN host Don Lemon colluded with anti-ICE activists now under investigation for storming a Minnesota church on Sunday--a "clandestine" operation that Lemon helped keep secret ahead of time before publicizing it once it began.
Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023 over mistreatment of female colleagues, accompanied Minneapolis lawyer Nekima Levy Armstrong on "Operation Pull Up" at Cities Church in Saint Paul to protest the ICE shooting earlier this month of 37-year-old Renee Good. According to Armstrong, the operation targeted Cities Church because an associate pastor is allegedly the acting director of Saint Paul's ICE office.
"We show up somewhere that is a key location," Armstrong told Lemon in an interview prior to the event. "They don't expect us to come there. And then we disrupt business as usual."
Lemon, who kissed Armstrong on the cheek at the beginning of their interview, accompanied the activist and others, including Saint Paul school board member Chauntyll Allen and members of Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, from its staging site in a Dollar General parking lot to the church. At the church, Armstrong and her cohort disrupted the service with shouts of "ICE Out!" and other slogans. The pastor targeted in the operation was not present at the church on Sunday.
The Department of Justice is investigating the incident, and there are growing calls on social media to arrest Lemon. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon said Sunday that she is investigating the incident for a potential violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it illegal to block access to houses of worship. Dhillon also took a swipe at Lemon, writing that his "pseudo journalism" is not protected by the First Amendment.
"You are on notice!" she wrote.
Lemon responded to Dhillon's remarks, distancing himself from Armstrong's organization.
...
A review of Lemon's live feed shows he was an enthusiastic supporter of "Operation Pull Up," even as he at times denied being a participant.
Lemon opened his live stream saying he had conducted "some reconnaissance" and had been speaking to an organization "that's gearing up for resistance and protest." Lemon said he had been "pleasantly surprised seeing the community coming together" in the wake of Good's shooting.
"These are resistance protesters that are planning an operation that we're going to follow them on," he said. "I can't tell you exactly what they're doing." But he described it as an operation "where they surprise people, catch them off guard, and hold them to account."
"Because they are strategizing, I don't want to get too much of their information there," said Lemon, also admitting that he "turned my camera off" at one point to avoid publicizing the "secret" plans.
The "journalist" turned off his cameras so as not to reveal his "subjects'" plans and strategy.
That doesn't sound like a "journalist."
He thanked Armstrong for inviting him to join the event. After the operation, Armstrong thanked "all of the activists who showed up + independent journalists," listing Lemon and others.
Inside the church, Lemon sought to cast himself as a neutral journalist observing the foray.
...
But moments later, Lemon praised the tactics of "Operation Pull Up."
"That's what I believe when I say everyone has to be willing to sacrifice something," he said. "You have to make people uncomfortable in these times. You have to be willing to go into places and disrupt and make people uncomfortable."
Read the whole thing. I mean Harmeet Dhillon. She should read the whole thing and write up an arrest warrant based on it.
Illinois Governor (and Possible Presidential Candidate) JB Pritzker Signs Law Sealing Criminal Records to Protect Illegals from Deportation by the Feds
—Ace
And also, as many people observe, to stop people from immediately looking up the criminal histories of the next scumbag to kill an innocent citizen. No more "arrested 58 times previously" headlines in Illinois.
They won't stop crime. In fact, they'll promote it.
But they will stop you from noticing crime.
Governor JB Pritzker
@GovPritzker
Jan 16
Today, we're empowering those seeking a second chance.
With my signature, Illinois will create an automatic process to seal the criminal records of those convicted of non-violent crimes.
We're opening up opportunities for those re-entering society to live healthy, stable lives.
Grok:
Illinois Governor Signs Clean Slate Act to Seal Nonviolent Records
Last updated
Jan 18
Governor JB Pritzker signed the bipartisan Clean Slate Act on January 16, automating the sealing of nonviolent criminal records for about 1.7 to 2.2 million eligible residents. It covers misdemeanors after two years, certain felonies after three or more, and petty offenses twice yearly, while excluding serious crimes like murder, sex offenses, and DUIs--law enforcement keeps full access. Supporters like Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth call it justice and redemption, citing higher wages and lower recidivism; critics including Republican lawmakers argue it protects repeat offenders and burdens background checks. The law phases in from June 1, 2026, with a task force monitoring impacts through 2034.
Simulator di tutti i Simulatori
@fleshsimulator
Jan 18
Well, I suppose that's ONE way to prevent news stories about someone with fifty prior arrests cutting an old lady in half with a sawzall on the subway or whatever
wanye
@xwanyex
Jan 17
There are so many things you can spend your time on, things to be motivated by, things that worry you, that bother you, that keep you up at night. And for progressives it just couldn't be clearer that near the top of that list is making life better and easier for criminals.
@amuse
@amuse
Jan 17
LAWFARE: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker's signed of the Clean Slate Act sealing criminal records like theft, drug possession, and disorderly conduct to protect illegal criminals including MS-13 and TdA gang members from deportation.
wanye
@xwanyex
Jan 17
There are so many things you can spend your time on, things to be motivated by, things that worry you, that bother you, that keep you up at night. And for progressives it just couldn't be clearer that near the top of that list is making life better and easier for criminals.
Offenses like property crimes and narcotics charges will be wiped from records -- and taxpayers are told to trust the system
@amuse
@amuse
Jan 17
LAWFARE: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker's signed of the Clean Slate Act sealing criminal records like theft, drug possession, and disorderly conduct to protect illegal criminals including MS-13 and TdA gang members from deportation.
Of course, employers will no longer be able to discover if applicants are career thieves and drug abusters.
Commissioner Sean Morrison
@SeanMMorrison
Jan 17
JB Pritzker and Illinois Democrats passed laws allowing millions of criminal convictions to be sealed.
This isn't "reform" it's protecting criminals over citizens.
The result?
• Employers can't fully vet who they hire
• Landlords can't properly screen renters
• Businesses can't assess real risk
• Citizens lose basic transparency and protection from scammers
Public safety depends on truth and accountability, not hiding criminal histories to satisfy ideological talking points.
Once again, Illinois democrats puts ideology first, and everyday citizens pay the price.
COVERUP: Non-citizens with criminal records are deportable but if their records are sealed most can stay. Illinois’ Clean Slate Act is designed to help non-citizen criminals become Democrat voters. pic.twitter.com/0s9ciaC8or
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was already irritated by what he describes as "unnecessarily contentious" questions from the team vetting him to be Kamala Harris's running mate when a senior aide made one final inquiry: "Have you ever been an agent of the Israeli government?"
The question came from President Biden's former White House counsel Dana Remus, who was a key member of Harris's vice-presidential search team.
Shapiro, one of the most well-known Jewish elected officials in the country--and one of at least three Jewish politicians considering a run for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination--says he took umbrage at the question. "Had I been a double agent for Israel? Was she kidding? I told her how offensive the question was," Shapiro writes in his forthcoming book, Where We Keep the Light, a copy of which The Atlantic obtained ahead of its release on January 27.
The exchange became even more tense, he writes, when Remus asked whether Shapiro had ever spoken with an undercover Israeli agent. The questions left the governor feeling uneasy about the prospect of being Harris's No. 2, a role that ultimately went to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. After Harris and Walz lost to Donald Trump, many Democrats were critical of her decision to bypass Shapiro, the popular governor of the nation's largest swing state. In his book, Shapiro says that the decision may not have been fully hers; he says he had "a knot in my stomach" throughout a vetting process that was more combative than he had expected. Shapiro wrote that he decided to take his name out of the running after a one-on-one meeting with Harris that featured more clashes, including about Israel.
The Biden/Harris "antisemitism envoy" objected to the question.
Should we also ask Muslims if they are loyal to "the Caliphate"? Actually, question retracted. We certainly should.
The great thing about America is that an actual paid foreign operative (for Qatar) can become a citizen and five minutes later lecture us on who counts as a loyal American https://t.co/0s65wQLq5S
THE MORNING RANT - Volkswagen’s Electric Vehicle Misfire: Its Made-In-America, Flagship EV is the Slowest Selling Vehicle in the United States
—Buck Throckmorton
While I get some schadenfreude from documenting the financial damage that legacy American automobile manufacturers such as Ford and GM have inflicted on themselves with their EV misadventures, the mess at Volkswagen is deeply upsetting to me. Be it right or wrong, I know that the US government will bail out Ford and GM, if necessary, to help mitigate the damage done by their irresponsible executives. Volkswagen, on the other hand, is likely to pull out of the US market and close its US manufacturing operations if it can’t right its ship.
I have long been a fan of Volkswagen products. In the post-Beetle era, its lineup has provided modern German engineering and a German driving experience to the mass market. My wife and I had a Passat which was an exceptional vehicle. I might have bought an American-made VW Atlas for my most recent vehicle purchase if I wasn’t so disgusted by Volkswagen pursuing an all-EV future. I didn’t want to buy a car that VW’s executives were determined to kill off.
If Volkswagen is going to survive in the U.S., it had better re-commit to gasoline-powered (“ICE”) vehicles, because its flagship electric offering, the ID.4, is the slowest selling car in the United States.
It would take 527 days to sell out the inventory of ID.4s in the United States, making it the slowest-selling vehicle in the country in January, according to metrics from CarEdge.
Have you ever heard of the Maserati Grecale? Me neither. It may be obscure and hard to sell, but it turns over faster than Volkswagen’s electric car.
The No. 2 slowest-selling vehicle in the United States in January was the Maserati Grecale.
Normal vehicle inventory takes 60 – 90 days to turn, and dealerships have historically targeted a 60-day supply of vehicles to ensure the optimum mix of vehicles without carrying excess inventory. For a vehicle which moves so slow that dealers are burdened with more than a year’s supply, they’d generally prefer to have zero units in stock. On the off chance a customer came in wanting to buy such a slow-moving vehicle, the dealer could easily get another dealer to transfer one.
Over the past several decades there has been an economic explosion in the American South, thanks in part to so many auto manufacturers locating plants in the region. In addition to those manufacturing operations, numerous suppliers also established nearby operations, and suppliers to those suppliers sprung up too. The cycle of prosperity and economic activity flows well when manufacturing is strong. Pretty much all the major Japanese, Korean, and German car companies have operations in the southern U.S. It’s a golden goose laying golden eggs.
But the EV fever somehow captured the minds of many auto executives and southern politicians, and they pursued EV investments in the South, even though the explicit goal was to kill-off the golden goose of existing ICE auto manufacturing.
Initial expectations were for the EV plant to assemble about 7,000 units per month, with the ability to ramp up to a volume exceeding 100,000 per year.
The actual demand has been negligible, averaging less than 20,000 units per year, even with federal rebates and aggressive pricing. But in Q4 of 2025, after the federal EV incentives expired, Volkswagen sold a nominal 248 electric ID.4s. That averages out to just 83 units per month, and annualizes to less than 1,000 units.
Volkswagen built a taxpayer-subsidized EV plant that was expected to produce about 10,000 electric vehicles per month, but it cannot even sell 100. The company may have no choice but to scrap the glut of unsold ID.4s, since consumers have made it clear that there is virtually no price at which they’re willing to buy them.
The failure of Volkswagen’s EV foray is an overall good thing for the American auto industry. The golden goose of ICE manufacturing lives on. But it is infuriating that politicians wasted taxpayer money on this malinvestment, and it will be especially sad if VW has to pull out of the American market and close its legacy Tennessee manufacturing plant due to the awful EV Gamble.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that acquiring Greenland is “essential” to U.S. national security and that an impending “fight for the Arctic” is real. “President Trump strongly believes that we cannot outsource our security because … let me tell you what will happen. And it might not be next year, might not be in five years, but down the road, this fight for the Arctic is real,” Bessent began.
But as I stated, there are other frozen wastelands much closer to home that if we do nothing about them right here and right now will be our undoing.
It seems that Minneapolis lefties have started patrolling the streets for drivers who happen to be behind the wheel of the same make of SUV as used by ICE and interrogating – not to say threatening – them. This video shows a gaggle of people’s tribunes who have brought an SUV to a stop (the video doesn’t show how) and forced the driver out to explain himself. They surround him, demand that he open the hatch to show them what he has inside, and then commence interrogating him. All that’s lacking are the Mao jackets and the caps with red stars. . . The driver’s attempts to ingratiate himself are almost as annoying: “I really appreciate what you guys are doing.” A century and a half ago, the socialist Commune took control of Paris and immediately started executing people. As they led one businessman to the killing ground, he cried out, “Why must I be shot … I know nothing of politics.”
The communard commander replied: “That is why you must be shot.” A century and a half, and they still haven’t woken up.
This is the mentality of the Cheka, the Red Guards, the Khmer Rouge – of every last attempt to introduce socialism by force -- out in the open and plain to see. One of the worst things about socialism is the way it empowers, encourages, and unleashes the foulest members of the human community. It can’t be crushed soon enough.
The demonstrators with the Racial Justice Network stormed into the Cities Church and called out resident pastor David Eastwood, who they accused of moonlighting as the acting field office director for ICE in Minnesota. A David Eastwood is listed as an employee with the field office, but it’s still unclear if that is the same man as the Cities Church pastor. The Post has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to check.
Mistaken identity-Schmidentity! Like the Urine-soaked lice-infested whorehouse mattress AKA Jasmine Crockett, accusing Lee Zeldin of accepting donations from Jeffrey Epstein, who as it turned out was not the infamous Epstein but someone unlucky enough to have the same name.
So, they take out the wrong guy, but the message has been sent. Mr. President, there is no alternative but to invoke the Insurrection Act, declare Minnesota in rebellion, arrest Walz, Frey, suspend the state legislature, dissolve Minneapolis' city charter, and appoint a territorial governor and mayor to run affairs and call in the armed forces to patrol the streets and restore order. Anyone who even raises an eyebrow should be arrested for conspiracy to aid and abet insurrection.
What are the risks politically? So we lose the midterms and perhaps 2028. The Democrat rigging machine will no doubt be going all out to make what happened in 2020 look like child's play. To let Minnesota get away with this ultimately means we lose the nation. This cannot stand and must not be allowed to stand. President Trump rightly rails against Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants as "the worst president in history" but if Donald Trump fails to set an example of Minnesota, he may go down not merely as the worst president but as the LAST real president in US history because the USA truly will cease to exist. In the years ahead, we may outwardly resemble America, but the spirit of this nation, the Constitution and the rule of a just and stable law based on the ascendancy of 2,000 plus years of Judeo-Christian and western history, culture and morality will come crashing down around us.
Hyperbole? You tell me.
Have a great day.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
New York City socialists are marshaling an army of more than 4,000 activists to form “rapid response” brigades to disrupt federal immigration enforcement in an expected crackdown on illegal aliens in America’s largest city. (Dear ICE: open fire and fire for effect - jjs) Socialists Planning to Replicate Minneapolis Chaos to Combat ICE Sweeps in New York City
The demonstrators with the Racial Justice Network stormed into the Cities Church and called out resident pastor David Eastwood, who they accused of moonlighting as the acting field office director for ICE in Minnesota. A David Eastwood is listed as an employee with the field office, but it’s still unclear if that is the same man as the Cities Church pastor. The Post has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to check. Mob storms Minnesota church during worship to target pastor they say has ICE ties
The St. Paul Downtown DoubleTree by Hilton canceled the rooms of multiple U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, citing concerns over growing protests in Minneapolis following the shooting of Renee Good. Hotel Kicks Out ICE Agents As Threats From Left-Wing Mobs Grow
ICE isn’t creating chaos; politicians and activists are—by turning routine detentions into viral outrage, provoking mobs, escalating encounters, and manufacturing danger for political gain.Chaos by Design
The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Rebecca Good, the partner of Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this month after she attempted to run the agent over with her car. Federal investigators want to know if Rebecca Good impeded law enforcement in the moments before the ICE agent opened fire on the vehicle. Renee Good’s Partner Is Now Under DOJ Investigation
The violence escalated after an ICE agent shot an illegal alien invader from Venezuela after being ambushed during a targeted” enforcement operation Wednesday, one week after another ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good during a Jan. 7 immigration enforcement operation. Video taken by Daily Caller News Foundation reporter Jorge Ventura showed anti-ICE rioters attacking a counter-protester with a flagpole. ‘This Is What You F*cking Wanted’: Video Shows Pro-ICE And Anti-ICE Demonstrators Clash As Rioting Continues
The legislation, which is called the “ICE Breaker Act of 2026” is sponsored by Maryland State Del. Adrian Boafo (D). Under the proposed legislation, ICE agents hired under President Donald Trump’s presidency would be barred from working as police officers, according to Fox45 News. Maryland Democrat Pushes Plan to Punish ICE Veterans with Job Ban
Within hours of being sworn into office Saturday, Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed Executive Order 10, a proclamation rescinding an executive order signed by her Republican predecessor requiring Virginia law enforcement officials to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Critics have framed the move as a “disaster” which will lead to an increase in crime. (RELATED: Moderate Democrat Ends Up In Knife Fight With Own Party After Supporting ICE) Newly-Minted Dem Governor Abigail Spanberger Immediately Repeals Pro-ICE Order In Virginia
Roger Kimball: In the fog of prewar Iran, disinformation, inflated body counts, and diplomatic silence obscure a simple truth: the regime is murdering its people, and the world is running out of time. The Fog of Prewar in Iran
Thad McCotter: Appeasement has failed Iran before; liberty will come not from Western neutrality or foreign bombs, but from standing with Iranians as they force the regime’s implosion. A Human Wave of Hope: The Iranian People Demand Freedom
While taking part in a discussion at the Center for American Progress, Schumer received a question about what he “can do about bringing” the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) back, after DOGE came in and made cuts. Chuck Schemer Says Democrats Will Reverse Most of DOGE Cuts
OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY/LEFTIST-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY
Heather Mac Donald: President Trump’s public reaction to violent lawlessness is without precedent in recent Oval Office history. Rude but Right on Crime
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
“The filing also details hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing to organizations backing ballot initiatives aimed at reshaping education policy and election laws in states, including Ohio, Massachusetts, Arizona and Wisconsin.” Nation’s Top Teacher Union Funneling Millions to Far Left Groups (Your No-Shit-Sherlock item of the day - jjs)
The figures have prompted calls for a national conversation about abortion laws, and renewed pressure for the British government to release the figures for more recent years, which they have been delaying. Culture of Death: Britain Hits 300,000 Annual Abortions. (You can bet your house none were Muslim women - jjs)
THE 2020 and SUBSEQUENT ELECTION HEISTS , SHENANIGANS/FRAUD and AFTERMATH
More than one million Chinese with U.S. citizenship who grew up in communist China will soon start voting in American elections, #1 New York Times bestselling investigative journalist and Breitbart News Senior Contributor Peter Schweizer reveals in his new book, The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon. ‘Manchurian Generation’ Ballot Flood: More than 1 Million Chinese With U.S. Citizenship Could Vote in 2030 Elections (You can bet your ass their ballots will be monitored by the CCP before being harvested - jjs)
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY
“Public records searches reveal no current ownership or leasehold interest held by Eric Swalwell in California, nor any history of any ownership of leasehold interest based on available public records,” said the petition filed by Gilbert on Jan. 8. “Swalwell’s congressional financial disclosers from 2011 to 2024 list no California real estate ownership.” Lefty Rep. Swalwell can’t run for gov in Calif. — because he doesn’t live there: court filing
POLITICS
Plouffe writes, “Right now, Democrats have no credible path to sustained control of the Senate and the White House. After the adjustments to the Electoral College map that look likely to come with the next census, the Democratic presidential nominee could win all states won by Kamala Harris, plus the blue wall of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and still fall short of the 270 electoral votes needed to win. An already unforgiving map gets more so, equally so in the Senate.” Democrats Are So Screwed and a Former Obama Advisor Just Proved It
Pennsylvania’s steady exodus is a policy verdict: people and billions are fleeing blue-state governance, and a Democrat trifecta would accelerate the bleed. U-Haul’s Election Lesson (People leaving or ballots being shipped in?! - jjs)
Russia has hammered Ukraine’s power grid, especially in winter, throughout the almost four-year war. It aims to weaken Ukrainians’ will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call “weaponizing winter.” Drone Strikes Cut Power to 200,000 Homes in Russian-Occupied Ukraine
Despite having chronically underinvested in its own defence, the socialist government in Madrid appears intent on pushing forward the globalist project of forming an EU Army. Following comments earlier this month from his Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, backing a common defence force, Prime Minsiter Sanchéz publicly expressed support for integrating Europe’s militaries. Socialist Spanish PM Sanchéz Calls for Creation of ‘European Armed Forces’ over Trump’s Greenland Threats
While Brussels lectures and dithers, Prague acts: Babiš’s transactional diplomacy shows how a mid-sized nation can thrive by aligning interests in a Trump-era world. The Czech Republic Shows Europe How It’s Done
The scientists toss out the possibility that the bar is the remains of a rocky planet vaporized at some point in the system’s past, but that is simply a wild guess. Astronomers detect a bar of iron in the center of the Ring Nebula (the Bar of Iron was an S&M club on Tattoine- jjs)
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Affluent, white, female, urban liberals, the “AWFULs,” seem to be everywhere in recent years. What is their problem? Karens and 'AWFULs' making things worse
“To put it another way, black dads don’t matter...A heterosexual, male-headed black family is complicit with structural racism...Married couples only constitute 28 percent of all black households.” The War on Black Fathers
From ramming U-boats to strafing survivors, drone wars, and bin Laden’s killing, America’s critics selectively forget that yesterday’s “war crimes” were applauded when ordered by Democrats. Double Tap Double Standard
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
The reason why RAM has become four times more expensive is that a huge amount of RAM that has not yet been produced was purchased with non-existent money to be installed in GPUs that also have not yet been produced, in order to place them in data centers that have not yet been built, powered by infrastructure that may never appear, to satisfy demand that does not actually exist and to obtain profit that is mathematically impossible.
This article gets one important thing right: LLMs are not conscious.
In a 2022 interview with The Washington Post, Google engineer Blake Lemoine made a startling claim about the AI system he was working on, a chatbot called LaMDA. He claimed it was conscious, that it had feelings, and was, in an important sense, like a real person. Despite a flurry of media coverage, Lemoine wasn't taken all that seriously. Google dismissed him for violating its confidentiality policies, and the AI bandwagon rolled on.
I commented on that story at the time. Lemoine is a crazy as a sack of rats on crazy pills. And was also completely and very obviously wrong, which is not the same thing.
As AI technologies continue to improve, questions about machine consciousness are increasingly being raised. David Chalmers, one of the foremost thinkers in this area, has suggested that conscious machines may be possible in the not-too-distant future. Geoffrey Hinton, a true AI pioneer and recent Nobel Prize winner, thinks they exist already.
Taken together, these biases [anthropocentrism, which is irrelevant, human exceptionalism, which is irrelevant, and anthropomorphism, which is actually the key here - Pixy] explain why it's hardly surprising that when things exhibit abilities we think of as distinctively human, such as intelligence, we naturally imbue them with other qualities we feel are characteristically or even distinctively human: understanding, mindedness and consciousness, too.
A little bit of nonsense thrown in at the start but an accurate description of the problem in the end.
But then it all falls apart:
The very idea of conscious AI rests on the assumption that consciousness is a matter of computation.
Which is rather like assuming that water is a molecule made of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms.
More specifically, that implementing the right kind of computation, or information processing, is sufficient for consciousness to arise.
Because it is.
This assumption, which philosophers call computational functionalism, is so deeply ingrained that it can be difficult to recognize it as an assumption at all.
As much as the molecular structure of water is an assumption.
But that is what it is.
Nope.
And if it's wrong, as I think it may be, then real artificial consciousness is fully off the table, at least for the kinds of AI we're familiar with.
"Kinds of AI we're familiar with"? Do you mean feed-forward models, which are definitely not conscious, or enhanced systems with feedback loops?
Challenging computational functionalism means diving into some deep waters about what computation means and what it means to say that a physical system, like a computer or a brain, computes at all. I'll summarize four related arguments that undermine the idea that computation, at least of the sort implemented in standard digital computers, is sufficient for consciousness.
First, and most important, brains are not computers.
And we're dead.
Brains are obviously computers and it is trivially easy to prove this.
Take a line of BASIC code, like:
10 PRINT 3+7
What does that do?
It prints 10.
How do you know?
Because you can execute that code in your head.
How can you do that?
Because your brain is a computer.
It may be more than a computer - though nobody has produce a coherent, let alone convincing argument for this - but it is unquestionably a computer.
There follow dozens of paragraphs of irrelevancies I won't get into, but suffice to say that it all goes downhill from there.
Quick reminder that Intel's B570 is still available at $200. It's not the fastest graphics card - it's comparable with Nvidia's RTX 3060, a midrange card from five years ago - but it's cheap, in stock, and works. And it has 10GB of RAM, a small upgrade over common 8GB cards.
I'm not really in the market for a new laptop right now, but this seems to get a lot right.
It's a 14" model with an Intel 255H CPU (6P/8E/2LP cores), a 2880x1800 120Hz screen - LCD rather than OLED, but it covers 100% of sRGB so it should be fine unless you're a professional artist of video editor - and a 99Wh battery despite weighing a modest 1.2Kg.
It has two SODIMM slots and two M.2 2280 slots - unusual and welcome in a 14" laptop - and one USB4 port, a 5Gb USB-C port with DP and PD (DisplayPort and Power Delivery), three 5Gb USB-A ports, HDMI, wired gigabit Ethernet, an audio jack, and a full-size SD card slot.
And the Four Essential Keys.
No dedicated graphics, but the CPU includes Intel's Arc 140T graphics which are quite competent and generally comparable to AMD's 780M.
Oh, and the keyboard is backlit and there's a physical privacy shutter for the camera.
Take Larry Page, who [owns] about 3% of Google but controls roughly 30% of its voting power through dual-class stock. Under this proposal, he'd owe taxes on that 30%. For a company valued in the hundreds of billions, that's a lot more than a rounding error. The Post reports that one SpaceX alumni founder building grid technology would face a tax bill at the Series B stage of the company that would wipe out his entire holdings.
Oh, right. It's not the 5% wealth tax. It's the 100%+ wealth tax. I can see how that would be a problem.
David Gamage, the University of Missouri communist kleptocrat retard law professor who helped craft the proposal, thinks Silicon Valley is overreacting. "I don't understand why the billionaires just aren't calling good tax lawyers," he told The San Francisco Standard this week.
That's just it.
They did.
Their tax lawyers advised them to flee. Immediately.
GRU Space, a startup founded by 21-year-old Skylar Chan, hopes to open the world’s first moon hotel by 2032, and is already accepting down-payments from space enthusiasts with very deep pockets. The final cost of the rooms is still unknown, but Chan says it will exceed $10 million. The good news is that you don’t need to pay it all up front. The company is currently taking deposits of $250,000 to $1,000,000, depending on the options selected.
Authorities in Pennsylvania have charged a man with multiple crimes after uncovering what they describe as one of the most disturbing cases of grave robbing in the state’s history.
Jonathan Gerlach, 34, of Ephrata, is facing more than two dozen charges after police allegedly caught him robbing a grave at Mount Moriah Cemetery, a historic site located on Kingsessing Avenue spanning Southwest Philadelphia and Yeadon, Delaware County.
A Virginia woman is drawing national attention after revealing an unusual eating habit: snorting food through her nose. Kathryn, a woman in her 30s, showcased her behavior on the Season 7 premiere of TLC’s My Strange Addiction, where she demonstrated how she blends her meals and consumes them nasally.
The habit, which Kathryn says began five years ago during community college on a dare, involves liquefying entire meals — from omelets to guacamole — and inhaling them through a straw. “It started with a flavored fruit drink. I got a head rush and it tasted even fruitier than drinking it. I was hooked,” she said on the episode.
Carlos, a 26-year-old from Chicago, has a unique habit—he regularly eats live bugs like mealworms, cockroaches, and crickets. His unusual eating behavior is featured in an episode of TLC’s “My Strange Addiction,” where he describes the taste of mealworms as similar to buttered popcorn and compares crickets to vegetables. He even claims the insides of cockroaches taste like custard.
Carlos says he enjoys the sensation of live bugs squirming in his mouth, calling it a satisfying and primal experience. He admits he’s been fascinated with eating bugs since childhood, and now consumes up to 100 live bugs a day. According to the show’s producers, that adds up to around 30,000 insects a year—roughly the weight of a turkey.
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First time for everything! (H/T - Piper)
The first written use of fuck, from 1528, inscribed by a monk who seems to have been pretty pissed off with an abbot. pic.twitter.com/YhhiGcV7iL
It's that time of the week - when we turn the ONT over to our good friend Piper for a bit. Here's this week's fashion pr0n.
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The Pitti Peacocks
Every January and June, the ancient walls of Florence’s Fortezza da Basso transform into something more than a fashion trade show. Welcome to Pitti Uomo, pronounced “Pete-y Whoa-mo”, the biannual menswear fair launched in 1972. It was originally housed in Palazzo Pitti, hence the name, and has long been the beating heart of international menswear business. Over the past 15+ years, it has also become famous for something else entirely: the Pitti Peacocks.*
These larger-than-life attendees — fashion buyers, influencers, stylists, editors, tailors, and self-styled dandies — treat the event’s courtyard as their personal runway. They strut in slow motion, pause dramatically for street-style photographers, and layer outfits with the confidence of creatures whose very purpose is to be seen.
Florence just wrapped Pitti Uomo 109 (Jan 13–16, 2026) and the street style delivered. Some of these pictures may require the use of a paper fan, you have been warned fellow ‘ettes.
Pitti Peacocks remind us menswear doesn't have to be boring. Show up, turn up the volume, and own every cobblestone. Who's ready to strut?
*Filmmaker Aaron Christian humorously captures the scene in his 2016 mockumentary The Life of Pitti Peacocks, narrated in classic David Attenborough style. It portrays the courtyard as a mating ground where “peacocks” jostle for camera proximity, preen, and perform elaborate rituals — all in the hope of landing that one viral shot
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Thanks, Piper. That was -- whelming.
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DJ Doof - Guess The Theme
Difficulty Level - 2 out of 5
What's the common thread / common meaning / common leitmotif?
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Tonight's ONT brought to you by product misuse
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Another whelming product from Doof Enterprises, LLC. Dare to be average!
Your feedback may or may not be very important to Doof Enterprises. Follow Mr. Doof on X @doof2112 or do the email thing – doof2112 at proton dot me.
Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!
Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the third January edition? Who could have seen that coming?!
With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
Do you see? Do you see, people? I am not the only one harping on fundamentals.
Are you a believer or a denier?
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Arrested For Self Defense?
Been watching the news? This is something worth thinking about as Spicy Time approaches.
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More M1 Garand Madness!
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Our Pal the Atlas ICBM
Being on target is nice.
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Stringing And Sagging
As we age, all sorts of problems begin to show up. Are you experiencing stringing or sagging?
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Highway Patrol!
This week's episode: Wounded!
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Plan 9 From Outer Space!
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Here are some different online cigar vendors. You will find they not only carry different brands and different lines from those brands, but also varying selections of vitolas (sizes/shapes) of given lines. It's good to have options, especially if you're looking for a specific cigar.
A note about sources. The brick & mortar/online divide exists with cigars, as with guns, and most consumer products, with respect to price. As with guns - since both are "persecuted industries", basically - I make a conscious effort to source at least some of my cigars from my local store(s). It's a small thing, but the brick & mortar segment for both guns and tobacco are precious, and worth supporting where you can. And if you're lucky enough to have a good cigar store/lounge available, they're often a good social event with many dangerous people of the sort who own scary gunz, or read smart military blogs like this one. -rhomboid
Anyone have others to include? Perhaps a small local roller who makes a cigar you like? Send me your recommendation and a link to the site!
Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
Food Thread: Render Unto Yorkshire (Pudding) The Things That Go With Yorkshire (Pudding)
—CBD
I recently bought a large chunk of converted vegetarian food to break down into steaks. There was a fair amount of lovely-looking fat which I couldn't bear to waste, so I rendered it into about a pint of gorgeous, pure-white beef tallow.
And what to do with it? Well, aside from using it as a cooking fat for all sorts of delicious stuff like fried eggs, and mixed into hamburger if it doesn't look fatty enough, and sautévegetables in to get them nice and brown and crispy?
Yorkshire pudding! Which goes wonderfully with the aforementioned steaks!
Although...these were a decidedly unimpressive batch. They didn't rise and get puffy and airy as much as I wanted, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I used too much beef tallow. I know...it's strange just writing those words, but that may have been the problem.
However, they were delicious and fatty and absolutely fun to eat, so, I can't complain, just observe.
The mainstream media are woefully, pathetically ignorant of even the most basic scientific principles, and when food and diet is the topic, it gets even worse. They can't even follow a simple rational argument, or even an expansion of a basic point.
Here is a great example. The headline is ridiculously, hilariously wrong. Ben Carson said no such thing. He simply explained that protein comes in many forms and isn't necessarily from animal protein via meat.
For those concerned the new guidance might lead Americans to eat too much red meat, Carson said, "Instead of thinking about it as too much red meat, let's look at the overall recommendation — and that is that you eat 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Now, how you get that protein doesn't matter. If it's drinking milk, if it's eating cheese — as long as you maintain high-performance fuel for your engine."
Of course he eats meat, and he isn't recommending anything even close to a vegetarian diet. He is simply pointing out that protein comes in many forms.
And this quotation is even better:
While the updated dietary guidelines emphasize whole, nutrient-dense foods, Carson cautioned against relying solely on GLP-1s like Ozempic for weight loss.
"All these artificial methods don't last a very long time. You have to keep taking them, and they're expensive," he said.
About one in eight American adults, roughly 12%, have used GLP-1 drugs for obesity and diabetes, with around 6% currently taking them as they rise in popularity, as Fox News Digital previously reported.
Notice how the media conflate GLP-1 drugs used to control diabetes with the use of them for weight loss? There is a big difference, and Carson is referring only to its non-diabetes use.
Maybe I am being picky, but I grow tired of this hysterical and illogical analysis of complex biomedical issues.
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So...I was sitting in the hotel lounge recently, thinking that a seltzer would be grand, but no, there were none to be had. So I channeled my youthful enjoyment of Diet Coke, thinking that they are probably identical, and since I hadn't had one in about 15 years, I wouldn't know the difference anyway.
Well, now I do know the difference, and that Pepsi was f*cking awful. I am a cheap bastard, even with other people's money, but I didn't finish it. Or come close. A few sips was all it took to convince me of the fundamental rightness of the argument that Coke Is It!
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I like Alton Brown. He knows how to write recipes, and he is sufficiently compulsive for my taste. But...Best Burger Ever? Don't be ridiculous! It has lamb in it! And he puts mayo on the bottom of the bun, which is a perversion and unfitting of a true red-blooded American.
On the other hand (where is the first hand?), his pie crust recipe is clever.
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Screw you Whole Foods. That is the pathetic result of popping their "organic popping corn." And the popped kernels weren't just small; they were tough as well. How they managed that? I have no idea. Maybe, like many other "organic" foods, popping corn that is raised organically simply isn't as good as conventional stuff.
The next batch, after a visit to my local supermarket, was JiffyPop, and it was far better, with bigger popped kernels and fewer old maids.
Speaking of which....what do you call unpopped kernels?
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And why is my current obsession popcorn?
This is why!
Yeah, I guess people make traditional box Mac & Cheese with it, but a dusting on hot popcorn is delicious!
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A friend graciously gave me some genuine grown-in-the-USA garlic, and I tasted one clove and planted the rest, because my pathetic failure last year is an anomaly...right? I hope so, because it's in the ground (actually, a large pot), and it had better work this time!
Send all of your extra antelope to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.
The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!
Whether Greenland is a vitally important strategic island that absolutely requires American possession is a question for the ages, but it is a militarily-important bulwark in the North Atlantic. It is an excellent point from which to defend the Atlantic from the Arctic Ocean and the Barents Sea. Does it have enough rare earth elements and other resources to make it even more important? Yeah...probably not. We have plenty of that sort of stuff in America, it's just that we have an insane regulatory state that makes using our own resources a massive undertaking.
Because it is a territory of Denmark, the few people who live there are treated as vassals, when they are treated at all. That is entirely unsurprising, because the track record of European colonialism is mixed at best.
This shouldn't be taken as a sign that Greenland natives are anxious to come over to the United States. Denmark is trying to make amends to the natives who were thusly mistreated, to the tune of roughly $46,000 each in reparations. That's just; unlike the calls for reparations in the United States, these payments are being made to the living people who suffered under an unjust policy, which is quite a different kettle of fish.
Many Greenland natives would rather the island be an independent nation. But that's not a tenable solution, especially in today's tense geopolitical atmosphere, where the Arctic is increasingly a vital strategic area, with all the major nations - the United States, Russia, and China in particular - looking to that region's resources. Greenland has to be under someone's defensive envelope, and even as a Danish possession, they fall under the protection of NATO, as it would as a possession of the United States.
President's Trump's saber rattling with respect to "taking Greenland" is entirely unnecessary, and could have been neatly avoided by playing up the miserable living conditions of the people of Greenland, and the equally miserable way they have been treated by the Danes. America could have been their knight in shining armor, bringing equality and prosperity to their shores. Making some offer to purchase or in some other way take possession of Greenland as a reasonable transaction between allies would have disarmed the reflexive nationalism that is bubbling up in Denmark and Greenland. Is the President's threat of military action a serious one? I doubt it. It is more of his unpredictability, which serves him quite well in many ways. But with Greenland I think it is bolstering the enemies of America.
On the other side of the equation, the idea that the EU will rush in with military force to protect Greenland is clownish in the extreme. Force projection is a joke in the EU. They can barely keep their few planes flying, much less maintain any sort of heavy lift capability. In fact, in a recent military exercise, Germany sent 13 soldiers to Greenland, and they had to use a Polish airline to get them there. And less than two days later they were ordered out, presumably because of President Trump's comments.
And the ridiculousness doesn't end there. Threats to throw America out of Europe if we take Greenland? Sure...that would mean an almost instant Russian victory in Ukraine, the loss of many billions of dollars of American spending in Europe, and the very real threat of an expansionist Russia, because there is simply no real military on the continent.
So...everyone calm down. Greeenlanders? Take nice big checks written by America, and maybe some good high-paying jobs in our expanding military infrastructure and mining efforts. Denmark? Smile, cash the check, and relax now that you don't have to deal with Greenland. And the EU? Just sit down and shut up. Nobody cares what you think.
Sunday Morning Book Thread - 1-18-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
—Open Blogger
(HT: OrangeEnt)
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...
So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
OrangeEnt sent me the picture above. I think I've featured a different picture of a book vending machine here. This one offers books for the low, low price of 8.00 (doesn't indicate currency, but let's assume it's US dollars). I wonder how popular these vending machines actually are. Who's responsible for curating the books that go into the machine? What happens if a book gets stuck and doesn't drop into the receptable at the bottom? What happens if the customer can't fish it out? So many questions...
FEATURED MORON REVIEW: God, the Science, and the Evidence
We have a special treat for you today. Moron Retired Buckeye Cop sent me the review below:
My schedule doesn't permit me to comment on the Book Thread in real-time very much. I recently read a book on the scientific evidence for the existence of God. I found the book to be interesting and a good review of the subject matter.
The book is God, the Science, the Evidence by Michel-Yves Bollore' and Olivier Bonnassies. Publish in 2025, this is the English translation of the book originally published in France in 2021. The French edition has apparently sold over 400,000 copies.
This is a pretty large book (almost 600 pages), but it is essentially two books. The first section covers the scientific discoveries of the 20th and 21st Centuries that point towards a Creator, while the second section (about 40% of the book) covers brief reviews of the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Jewish people, and philosophical proofs for the existence of God.
What the scientific discoveries show: the Universe cannot be infinitely old, it is not in steady-state (it's still expanding), background radiation is virtually homogeneous throughout the Universe, and the thermodynamic principle of entropy requires the eventual heat-death of the Universe. Also, the various mathematical constants governing the natural laws are so finely tuned that small variances would have prevented the Universe from forming and life existing as we know it. Furthermore, the jump from simple amino acids to the smallest bacteria is a more daunting challenge than theorized in the 1950s and 1970s.
All of this evidence points to the Universe being a closed system of finite age. The scientific evidence of God is so convincing that intellectually-honest atheists have changed their opinions and admit to the existence of some sort of creator God.
While I was familiar with some these scientific discoveries, I had not been aware that the Communists in the Soviet Union and the Nazi Germans were cognizant that those discoveries known at the time (namely the expanding Universe and the Big Bang) pointed towards a creator God and undermined their political order. This led to the execution of astronomers, physicists and mathematicians, exile for some, and others fleeing to Britain and the U.S.
The second section has a nice discussion of the Bible and how various ideas were counter-intuitive: such a time, space and matter coming into existence simultaneously, and the sequence of events in Genesis are substantially correct. There is a good summary of contemporary non-Christian documentation of the existence of Jesus Christ and Christians. The discussion of evidence for Jews being the Chosen People of God is interesting. The discussion of philosophical proofs is a good review for those unfamiliar with them.
I do have some critiques of the book: there are some typographical errors and strange hyphenation (such as "wit-hout") that could have been caught with better editing. Furthermore, the book probably could have been a bit shorter because some of the information in the scientific section seemed repetitive. Finally, as a mechanical engineer myself, I found the authors' explanation of entropy to be a bit confusing for the general reader.
Entropy is a measure of a system's ability to do mechanical work. A good way to think about entropy is that it indicates the disorder in the system. I was a bit surprised that they had no discussion of exergy (a measure of the useful thermal energy available within a system). Since entropy always increases and exergy always decreases in a closed system, both of those thermodynamic principles point towards a beginning and end of the Universe. Thus, science gives evidence of Aristotle's "Unmoved Prime Mover."
This book approaches the existence of God from a Christian, and more specifically, a Catholic perspective, rather than making a deist argument. In the second section of the book, there is a discussion of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima: the authors quote contemporary anti-Catholic newspapers to demonstrate that something occurred at Fatima and was witnessed by tens of thousands of people. The authors incorrectly explain the Arian Heresy, but that does not detract from their arguments in favor of God as an active supernatural being, and materialism as an irrational belief system.
The book is a bit daunting in size but reads pretty quickly since the font is fairly large and the text is almost double-spaced. Overall, this is a good book worth the effort. If a member of the Horde would like to get a book that demonstrates that belief in the existence of God (and Jesus Christ) is not contrary to reason, this would be a useful addition to their library. Rating = 4.25 / 5.0.
I really don't have much to add. I know I've felt the touch of God moving in my own life within the past few years. It's unmistakable once you've felt it. I also look out at the vastness and splendor of the cosmos and *know* that there's a primal cause that created it all.
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BOOKS BY MORONS
We have another special treat courtesy of J.J. Sefton. A Moron sent him the following email and J.J. asked me if I might do something with it for the Sunday Morning Book Thread. Furthermore, this marks a special personal milestone--it's the 100th Book By Morons I've collected since I've been hosting the Sunday Morning Book Thread.
Dear Mr. Sefton,
I hope your 2026 has gotten off to a strong start and that you and yours are healthy and thriving. I wanted to share some news that you may wish to link to in Cut Jib Newsletter and Ace of Spades HQ. My novel Ghostlands has been selected to receive the inaugural Ark Press Prize. Ark Press is a new publisher, started at the beginning of 2025, that intends to serve predominantly male audiences for fiction that have mostly been abandoned by the Big Five publishers. Their output will include science fiction, fantasy, suspense, mystery, and literary novels.
Ghostlands is an excellent fit for them because the novel uses the tools of science fiction to illustrate the persistence of the past, the tenacity of historical memory, even when under assault by official authorities, and the tremendous importance of fatherhood, with all the sacrifices it entails. The Ark Prize includes publication with a $10K advance. Ghostlands will be published this September.
Thank you for whatever you can do to help get the word out.
Best wishes,
Andrew Fox
Any of you aspiring Moron Authors out there may want to look into submitting to Ark Press. As a new start up publisher company, they may be willing to take more risks in publishing than a more established publisher. Imagine the Moron Horde taking over its own publishing house just like we could take over Greenland! Worth a shot!
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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS
Whoo! I'd never heard of Ian McAllister*, but Skylark Mission makes me want to read more of his work. I haven't read such a gripping tale in some time.
The plot is akin to The Guns of Navarone, except that it involves Japanese PT boats in the Vitiaz Straits, between New Guinea and New Britain. We have a small team, including civilians, who set out to destroy a hidden jungle base from which PT boats are sinking ships loaded with refugees who are fleeing the Japanese advance. We have combat, maps (two!), shady pasts, and a dusting of romance. We even have sabotage.
The worst thing about the book is that it broke along the spine. I taped it together, but the damage means that it will go to the Little Free Library. I hope that somebody will ignore the condition, read the book, and enjoy it.
*ADDENDUM: Who the hell was Ian MacAlister? Turns out that was one of several pen names for Marvin H. Albert, a prolific author. No relation to the sportscaster.
Posted by: Weak Geek at January 11, 2026 09:16 AM (p/isN)
Comment: Sounds exciting! It's unfortunate that the spine was damaged. I've found moderate success in using a combination of Elmer's glue and packing tape to repair the spines of books, at least to the point where I can read them without worrying about pages falling out. Skylark Mission is available on Amazon, but it's a bit pricey right now ($10-$28 for the paperback). May want to hunt it down through a used bookseller somewhere else if you are interested. Watch out for phantom booksellers!
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I'm reading Dr. Edward Feser's The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism (St. Augustine's Press, 2008), which is an excellent explanation of Ancient Greek philosophy as further developed by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. I'm finally understanding what all the philosophical hubbub is about, and I really enjoyed his thorough dismantling of the nonsense spewed in recent years by Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. I'll probably end up binge-reading all of Dr. Feser's books over the next year.
Posted by: Sharkman at January 11, 2026 10:41 AM (/RHNq)
Comment: I enjoy watching YouTube videos where a Christian apologist like Dr. Lennox debates atheists like Christopher Hitchens. Ultimately, the question about the existence of God seems to boil down to why we exisst. Atheists state that it simply happened by accident, but the mathematical models can't support this idea because the probability required is staggeringly improbable. "Why do we exist?" stumps atheists. They have no answer to that question.
The Dresden Files Book 3 - Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
In my mind, this is where The Dresden Files begins to take off and get really good. Grave Peril intoduces us to the spiritual side of Harry Dresden's world as a mysterious entity is causing ghosts and other spritual begins to become even more tormented than they already are. We are also introduced to the Red Court of vampires, who become major villains for Harry in subsequent books right up until the end of Changes, but I won't spoil it. It's pretty awesome.
Butcher is quite good about his world-building, introducing elements over time as he continues the evolving adventures of Harry Dresden. Many books involve gambit pileups as multiple factions begin to clash with each other. Grave Peril gives us the Red Court vampires and the Faerie courts, which will play a much more important role in the next book and later books in the series.
We are also introduced to Michael Carpenter, Knight of the Cross and the Fist of God. He wields the divine sword Amoracchius, more commonly known as Excalibur (yes, you read that right). He's a great character, serving as Harry's moral compass. Eventually, we'll see how Harry becomes an adopted member of Michael's large family, which gives Harry the courage to continue doing good for the people of Chicago.
The Dresden Files Book 4 - Summer Knight by Jim Butcher
Summer Knight revolves around the conflict between the Seelie and Unseelie courts of the Faerie Realms. These courts become major antagonists in this series, starting with this book. Faeries are dangerous, treacherous creatures, but they are not strictly villainous. They're more complex than that. Sure, they often toy around with mortals for their own amusement, but usually it's because the mortals are asking for it. It's possible to deal with the Faeries, but you better know what you are doing or they will turn against you in a heartbeat, as long as they don't break any of their own rules.
As we'll find out in later books, the Summer and Winter courts have enormous influence on the mortal realm, working behind the scenes within the Nevernever to maintain a delicate balance. When that balance is corrupted or disrupted, as we see in Summer Knight, the mortal realms stands in danger of being swept away by the primal forces commanded by Faerie. It's up to Harry and his companions to find a solution that saves the world from the wrath of Faerie.
The Dresden Files Book 5 - Death Masks by Jim Butcher
Death Masks is one of my favorite Dresden Files stories. Butcher gives us both great villains and exceptional heroes. It turns out Michael Carpenter is not the only Knight of the Cross. He has two companions who show up from time to time to aid Michael in his task. The Knights of the Cross have been charged by God to reclaim the thirty pieces of silver that were used to pay Judas for betraying Jesus Christ. Each piece of silver is tainted by one of the Fallen, lieutenants of Lucifer when he was cast out of Heaven. The Order of Denarius are those who carry the coins, becoming corrupted versions of themselves due to the influence of the Fallen.
The leader of the Denarians is Nicodemus Archleone, and he's one of my favorite villains in all of literature because you just love to hate him. He's the ultimate smug snake, chessmaster, and just a stone cold evil bastard. He becomes a recurring villain in the series, often lurking behind the scenes, stirring up trouble for Harry and his companions. In Death Masks Nicodemus is scheming to acquire the Shroud of Turin so that he can turn its mystical healing properties into a deadly plague that will spread across the world. I really, really hate this guy. Evil with a capital "E."
The Dresden Files Book 6 - Blood Rites by Jim Butcher
Blood Rites takes us into the political intrigue that exists between the three main vampire courts: Black, Red, and White. The Black Court is your traditional depiction of vampires, such as Dracula. Dangerous and powerful, they hide in the shadows. The Red Court are also monstrous, but they can more easily pass for human. They have effectively taken over large swaths of South America, feeding on entire villages and small towns. Now they are in Chicago, stirring up trouble. The White Court are the most human, preferring to feed on the psychic energy of their victims rather than blood. They are also quite dangerous in their own way, as they can influence large cities through political maneuverings.
Harry gets caught up in the middle of their conflict when a member of the White Court, the vampire Thomas, brings Harry in on a case to protect a client from an entropy curse. It turns out Thomas is hiding a devastating secret tied to Harry's own past.
The figure comes from expert witness C. Paul Wazzan, a financial economist whose bio says he has been deposed nearly 100 times and testified at trial more than a dozen times in complex commercial litigation cases.
I have acted as an expert witness once. You couldn't pay me enough to do it again... Though $134 billion would be tempting.
Wazzan, who specializes in valuation and damages calculations in high-stakes disputes, determined that Musk is entitled to a hefty portion of OpenAI's current $500 billion valuation based on his $38 million seed donation when he co-founded the startup in 2015.
Much of the article is devoted to ad-hominem attacks by the partisan lunatics at Tech Crunch, who think fraud is okay against people for whom they feel irrational hatred.
If you're wondering why the beancounters at the big memory manufacturers are being wary of rapid expansion in the face of unprecedented demand, well, it's because they are able to read a spreadsheet and they do not like what they see.
They originally planned to start construction in 2024, but were delayed by bats.
The megafab - which would displace 500 acres of woods and wetlands, as well as two endangered species of bats - is scheduled to begin producing DRAM chips by 2030.
Micron said it will create 1,216 acres of off-site bat habitat including maternity roosts to mitigate the potential damage its fab will cause to the Indiana and northern long-eared bat populations, as well as 628 acres of land to offset impacts to the sedge wren, short-eared owl, and northern harrier bird populations.
Part of the land the factory will be built on is swamp, so Micron has been obligated to build a new swamp to replace the old one.
Hardware Unboxed reported that there were no Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti review cards to be had for a planned model roundup, that Asus told them the 5070 Ti was "end of life", and that Australian retailers reported that there was zero stock of any model at suppliers.
Nvidia insisted this was all lies and slander and slanderous lies and every model of the RTX 5000 lineup was still in production.
For the real story, let's check Newegg, since their site can easily be filtered to exclude second-hand and out-of-stock items and cards from strange marketplace sellers in Uzbekistan.
Total 5090 models available at any price: Zero.
5080 - one, at 80% over MSRP.
5070 Ti - one, at 40% over MSRP.
5070 - 8 models starting at close to MSRP.
5060 Ti 16GB - I initially found none at all, but a second search dug out one card.
5060 Ti 8GB - the model all the reviews told you not to buy is readily available starting at MSRP.
5060 - 20+ models in stock starting at MSRP.
5050 - 4 models in stock starting at MSRP.
So if you're looking for a low-end card or for the mid-range 12GB 5070, you're in luck - they're in stock and selling for their listed prices. But the cards with 16GB or more VRAM are gone.
On the AMD side things are a little better. The three 16GB cards - the 9060 XT, 9070, and 9070 XT - all show multiple models available, but all starting at 5% to 20% above MSRP, a problem that has persisted since they launched except for a few short weeks late last year.
No Intel consumer CPU has ever had 12 P cores; the largest number ever was with the 10-core 10900 introduced in 2020, and subsequent to that the maximum has been 8.
But, you point out, these are embedded CPUs, not consumer models.
True. But Socket FC-LGA16A is better known as Socket 1700, the same one used by Intel's 12th, 13th, and 14th generation desktop CPUs, and for which inexpensive motherboards supporting both DDR4 and DDR5 are readily available.
I mentioned this before but this is a nice roundup with pictures of expansion cards using the B650 to provide four additional M.2 slots and four SATA ports in a half-height form factor.
It's an open source project but it would be interesting to see someone pick it up and run with it.
A project born of the Wuflu lockdown and weaponised autism. It's legitimately impressive.
Speaking of which, I played some more Hytale. Despite being in early access and its developers apologising for its unpolished state, it's a fun game - and it only costs $20.
The best way to think of it is that it's not a pure Minecraft clone but a combination of the best features of Minecraft and older action RPGs like Torchlight. The world can be taken apart and rebuilt block-by-block - mostly - but it's faster-paced and more action-oriented than Minecraft, and has story elements that Minecraft is mostly lacking.
What The Times largely avoids mentioning is that the teenagers affected immediately created new accounts and worked around the ban. Traffic from the sites to Australia has not been reduced at all since the ban went into effect.
Musical Interlude
Disclaimer: The ice isn't melting. WHY ISN'T THE ICE MELTING?
Saturday Night Club ONT - January 17, 2026 [Double Play]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to Club ONT - A Double Play collaboration of The Disco and The Dino.
Looking for more fun than you can bear? Well, come on in and see what's bruin! Please leave the cubs outside, things can get a little bit grizzly in here. Stock up on restroom tokens, avoid using the woods outside for - well, you know what bears do in the woods!
A police officer pulls over a car and notices the backseat is absolutely packed with penguins.
"Officer," the driver says, "I know what you're going to say, and I have a perfectly good reason!"
The officer stares at the unusual passengers and replies, "Sir, I'm not going to say anything. I just think you should take these penguins to the zoo immediately."
The driver agrees and promises to do so. The officer lets him off with a warning.
The very next day, the same officer pulls over the same car. He looks in the window and, to his astonishment, the backseat is still full of penguins - but this time, they are all wearing sunglasses and party hats.
The officer sighs, "Hey! I thought I told you to take these penguins to the zoo!"
"I did!" the driver replies with a big smile. "And today we're going to the beach!"
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A husband comes home drunk, vomits, and falls down on the floor. Then his wife gets him up and cleans everything up...
The very next day he expects his wife to scold him and fight about last night. Instead, she kisses him on his forehead and makes him his favorite breakfast…
When she leaves the room, he asks his son about last night...
The son tells him, "When Mom got you upstairs and was trying to remove your boots and shirt, you yelled, Hey lady! Leave me alone! I'm married!"
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Drink of the Night
Tonight we drew the 4 of hearts in the deck of playing card cocktails
Dafuq is orgeat syrup? Let's ask Grok!
Orgeat syrup (pronounced "or-zha" or "or-zhat") is a sweet, nutty syrup primarily made from almonds, sugar, and a touch of floral elements like orange blossom water (and sometimes rose water). It has a rich, marzipan-like flavor with creamy, toasted almond notes and a subtle floral aroma.
Historically, it originated from a barley-almond blend (the name comes from the French word for barley, "orge"), but modern versions focus on almonds. It's milky and emulsified, giving drinks a smooth texture.
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Meanwhile at Club Bulwark
Good Friday morning! One more shift, then time to cut loose. I'd advise sticking to traditional beverages; I hear the new Bud Light replacement is terrible. Have a great day and stay positive! pic.twitter.com/vIlS8IB0lq
A flock of about 50 sheep escaped from their owner while being herded and took a shopping trip to a nearby supermarket in Germany.
A video taken at the Penny supermarket in Burgsinn, Lower Franconia, shows dozens of sheep flooding into the store through the front doors, causing chaos inside the store and leaving a trail of destruction and poop in their wake.
Shepherd Dieter Michler said the sheep had broken away from a larger flock he had been herding through the area en route to the Sinn River.
Michler said the sheep had apparently been distracted by acorns on the ground in the store's parking lot, and then went inside in search of more snacks.
He said the sheep were safely reunited with the rest of the flock.
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Club ONT Department of Geography
This is the South American version of "did you know Reno is further west than Los Angeles?"
The entire continent of South America is further east than Jacksonville, Florida.
Latitude games:
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The childhood equivalent of "hold my beer and watch this!"
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Club ONT Music
Music history:
This band got its name by accident: while rehearsing in a Spartanburg, SC warehouse, they spotted a keychain belonging to a blind piano tuner who had used the space before them. And just like that, one of rock’s most iconic names was born. Name the band. pic.twitter.com/VfexuYKWgy
The piano tuner was blind, then they write a song called "Can't You See?" That's COLD!
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Tonight's tuneage
How's that for an eclectic mix?!?
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Top 10ish Comments of the Week
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Club ONT Brought to you by...
Diversified business endeavors
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Club ONT management has no idea why a Somali daycare listed this address on their official documentation. We do not emphasize quality, and there is no learing allowed here. We will, however, gladly accept briefcases of cash. Thank you for your continued support of Club ONT.
The Saturday Evening Movie Post [with moviegique]: Dr. Zhivago
—Open Blogger
We enter the bleakest time of the year for dedicated moviegoers, what Red Letter Media used to call "F--- You, It's January." I think later they rebranded it as something like "F--- You, It's Forever" when looking at the dismal line up of...2019? I don't precisely recall, but it is hard to look at the slate of major releases with a sense of optimism.
We saw a good quasi-documentary about Storks called "The Tale of Silyan," which tells a true-ish story while featuring gorgeous images of storks and landscape, from National Geographic.
Then there's "The Plague," an odd '90s coming-of-age story with strong horror elements. But, you know, junior high is already a horror story. It was solid. Joel Edgerton stars as the world's most clueless gym coach.
We ventured out to a classic L.A. theater tp see the delightful 1958 Jacques Tati film, "Mon Oncle". I can't recommend it strongly enough. It's partly translated from French but partly not because the dialogue isn't that important. It's almost a silent cartoon comedy, very gentle, and at this point, painfully poignant, as this is a France which, even mocked, shall nevermore be.
Speaking of painfully poignant, however, I went on the the 30th or 31st to see Dr. Zhivago. I nearly wept for the artistry, and realizing this is another thing that will not be created in the future. The beauty, the scope, the blocking, the set design--I mean, turning 1960s Spain in the summer into 1915 Russia in the winter. And the story itself is delicate. Nobody saves the cat.
It's the 60th anniversary, so I thought I'd re-up the 50th anniversary review I wrote. I'm pretty much in accord with myself on this latest viewing (not always the case), but I liked it even more this time.
I still find the elision of Lara and her abusive customer's relationship jarring. It's there but we have to do some heavy inferring.
Sharif had to tape his eyes back to look less Egyptian. Can you imagine?
It didn't do my heart good to watch tiny, dimwitted tyrants telling people what they should and shouldn't be allowed to have, and I despaired that those people are still running around, still thinking they should run things.
Nonetheless, I will be surprised to see a better movie this year, unless I go see "Lawrence of Arabia".
Ask me if I want to go see a three hour movie. (Go on, Peter Jackson, ask me.) The answer is likely to be “maaaaaaaaaybe”. Now, tell me it’s by David Lean, the great director of Lawrence of Arabia. I’ll have my popcorn in hand before you finish rolling your “r"s, which you should do, if you’re saying "David Lean, the great director of Lawrence of Arabia”.
Dr. Zhivago is, in fact, 3 hours and 20 minutes, and longer if you factor in the intermission and the overture, but much like Lawrence, it leaves you wanting more. But before we get into that, let’s just recap the plot: The eponymous Zhivago is orphaned at a young age and taken in by some family friends who have a daughter his age. Zhivago and the daughter fall in love and get married, and live happily ever after, in the manner of all protagonists of Russian novels.
The happy couple!
Nyet! But seriously, things are going all right, at least for their little family, and then there’s a bit of trouble in the form of World War I and the October Revolution. In the tumult, Zhivago ends up manning a hospital full of injured with the help of Lara, a nurse he has crossed path with several times previously, and who is now married to a fanatical revolutionary.
Zhivago and Lara fall in love, though they never consummate, and Zhivago goes back home to find his family property divided “fairly” amongst the survivors of his family and a bunch of poor people who see a good opportunity for revenge. To make matters worse, Zhivago is a poet, and his poetry is on the outs with The Party, so he has to flee into the country—where his path crosses again with Lara.
One of the reasons I’d never seen this film before is because it just sounds boring to me. Much like Lawrence, really. Even now! But there’s something magical about Lean, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. The cinematography and blocking is flawless, of course—this is a great movie to look at, with its snow palaces and shadowy street scenes. The characters are interesting, sure, even for three or more hours. The story hangs together better than most modern ones, maybe: Instead of a series of things that just happen, every cause and effect here seems thoughtful, even when essentially random from the characters’ perspectives.
There isn’t a ton of suspense in the thriller style. This sort of movie can make Hitchcockian suspense seem practically gimmicky. But you care about the characters' fates, and that creates a different kind of suspense. Zhivago is a good man, even a pure man, which is an odd thing to say to one in a love triangle. Perhaps because he is not a womanizer, just a man blindsided by love. He doesn’t seem entirely earthly.
"Did somebody call for an emergency poet?"
Sometimes you see a movie that everyone loves and agree with them about all the great aspects of it but still personally just don’t like it. Sometimes there’s a movie like this, where you agree with everyone about all the great aspects, love it—but still don’t understand why.
The acting was different back then, I note. I don’t want to say it’s stagey, but it’s bigger than modern acting. There’s a scene where the Moscow police/army storm through a Commie protest and mow everyone down. Lean doesn’t show the violence, he shows Zhivago’s reaction to it, and it’s bigger than you’d see today. Not, like, Shatner big, but still: big.
Overall, it’s an amazing film, perhaps not quite up to Lawrence but still a classic. Of course, it got very mixed reviews at the time, and there’s no need to speculate why. Lean and Pasternak do what Zhivago is accused of in the movie: They tell a story about human beings in a time of great revolution. And there’s nothing Romantic about the Revolution.
The movie is bookended by Zhivago’s half-brother, a party apparatchik, trying to locate Zhivago’s daughter. He tells the story partly to a younger comrade (who notes pointedly that, if the younger generation doesn’t appreciate Zhivago’s poetry, it’s because they weren’t allowed to by the State). The possible niece works in a mine or factory or something that falls short of a worker’s paradise, and is scared of her would-be uncle who, as a Party Leader, is extremely powerful and dangerous. As he says, “nothing ordered by the Party is beneath the dignity of any man.”
He fights in World War I with the purpose of making Russia fail. And succeeds. And counts it as his greatest work.
Lara’s husband, insane as he is, articulates the the Revolutionary ideal: “The private life is dead for a man with any manhood.” Then in the same breath, when it’s pointed out to him that he burned the wrong village, he says “A village betrayed us, a village is burned. The point is made.”
They still look like this, but they pretend to smile now because it fools people. (Tom Courtenay won Best Supporting Actor and looks like the prototype for Indy's antagonist in "Raiders".)
Then, after serving in the war, when Zhivago comes home, his home has been #occupied. All of Moscow is, really, and of course, everyone is sick and starving and feeding off resentment of the rich. Zhivago, as a man who writes love poems, is a threat. When they escape to the country, they find their old house unused and boarded up, but with a sign threatening terrible things to them should they dare to use it. And already the Party has spies everywhere.
We don’t actually witness Lara’s fate, but we hear she may have ended up in the gulags.
So, yeah, I don’t wonder that critics judged it harshly, in an era when the New York Times was decades away from admitting Duranty lied. It’s a deeply Romantic film at every level and breathes with an understanding that the joyless worker state of Communism is death to Romance.
It was fun to see all these people in their prime that I knew as a child primarily in middle age and late life. Omar Sharif is quite handsome and earnest in a way that keeps things from getting sleazy. I’d always thought of Geraldine Chaplin as okay-looking, but she is heart-breakingly sweet here. Until 2006’s Away From Her, I’d always thought of Julie Christie as unremarkable looking, but it’s hard not to fall in love with her here.
I don't think frame captures do her justice but here's a classic shot.
Rod Steiger does a great job as the epitome of the old world corruption. I imagined Alec Guinness standing there, delivering his lines with the perfect combination of menace and party-toadying, thinking “I’m going to be remembered for swinging around a flashlight-sword.”
The music, by Maurice Jarré, is near perfect. About the only thing that I wasn’t sold on was the creepy music he used for Lara’s (Christie) affair with Komarovsky (Steiger). But I wasn’t clear on that whole thing. It was creepy, and I’m not saying Jarré was wrong, or anything, but maybe the relationship needed a little less elision in the movie itself.
Still, here’s the key thing: The Boy and I? We would sit down and watch it again in a heartbeat.
If you have a chance to see it in a theater—it’s making the rounds for its 50th anniversary restoration—by all means, do so.
Fun fact: This is entirely fake. Filmed in Spain in 100 degree weather, with the cast wearing fur coats and being trapped inside enclosed rooms to preserve the illusion/continuity. The actors nearly passed out at times.
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) a spin it landed on sea glass.
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. Discussion of current events, religion and politics can elsewhere. Pants are optional. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.
Play nice. Don't be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
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What is sea glass? Sea glass is naturally tumbled and frosted glass that is found on beaches along oceans (and sometimes large lakes). It is old broken glass from bottles, jars, tableware, shipwrecks, etc. that the sea has transformed over decades into smooth, gem-like treasures. The constant churning of waves, salt water, sand, and rocks rounds off the sharp edges, etches the surface, and gives it that signature frosted, matte appearance. Some call sea glass "mermaid's tears."
Do you enjoy hunting sea glass? Do you collect and take it home or just enjoy?
Where are your favorite places to find sea glass?
If you take it home, what do you do with it? Display, turn it into jewelry, etc.
Have you found other glass goodies on the beach, like fishing floats?
We'll save shells for a thread of their own at some point, so save this post for glass.
Glass Beach on the island of Kauai has been a favorite spot of mine for the last ten years. When my youngest son was two months old, we flew to Hawaii to spend the last month of my maternity leave on the island, and I took him to this beach with me. The first time we went to Glass Beach, the sand was covered in tiny, worn down glass pieces; all I collected at the time was a small jar of sand.
Sidney, British Columbia, Canada
A few years ago, my son had a hockey tournament in British Columbia. Per hockey coach rules, he had to be at the rink an hour before the first game of the day for warmups. I looked at a map of the nearby area and saw that there was a little beach and boardwalk in downtown Sidney, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and decided that I'd start my morning with a walk near the ocean at sunrise. The sunrise was breathtaking and once the sun was up, I was able to see glass on this little patch of sand to the right of the pier, which I later learned was called Glass Beach by locals.
Prince William Sound, Alaska
While exploring the Prince William Sound in Southcentral Alaska, we've found pristine black sand beaches that rival anything Hawaii has to offer, beaches filled with dried starfish and shells, and a secret Glass Beach.
My friend and I stumbled upon Glass Beach one day when we decided to explore an island we'd seen many times from the boat.
Our starting point had thousands and thousands of shells littering the beach, and as we rounded the bend, we saw that the beach was stacked with sand dollars in all stages of their life cycle. Rounding the far corner or the island, we came to two rocky beaches that we felt were ripe for glass...and our intuition didn't fail us! This beach has given us glass in all shades of green, teal and blue, some large egg shapes, and a green glass "gumdrop."
Others at the link, but where have you sought and found sea glass?
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What do you do with found sea glass? Make jewelry!
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I did not know that tumbling glass to replicate the look of sea glass is a thing. Apparently, all you need is a small rock tumbler and broken glass. Anyone done this with glass or rocks or ?
Make your own glass allows you to make things like a sea glass Christmas tree.
Optimal hobbies are not only inexpensive and low risk but can also be enjoyed into advanced age with friends, improving physical and mental health along the way. And if they provide other ancillary benefits such as networking, career advancement, or generational wealth, so much the better. Here are seven characteristics of healthy hobbies.
1- Low Cost
2 - Not High Risk
3 - Longevity
4 - Camaraderie
5 - Physical Health
6 - Intellectual Stimulation
7 - Relaxation
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an home building theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
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Notable comments from last week:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, contribute your own. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.
He saw an orange cat steal his pillow and decided to follow it. He discovered that it lived on the street and was a mother. Then he rescued and adopted the whole family. ❤️❤️
I am a long time lurker on your site, Patriot in Charlston, S.C. Never get tired of reading your snarky clips. Here is a kitty. We are fostering who is named after Schrodinger‘s cat Irvin! I never thought I could like a black cat but this little guy is so affectionate and fun. It’s going to be hard to give him up.
A charmer! Such a great kitty to foster!
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Lily Beagle 2015-2026
She was a good dog with lots of quirks. She always wore a basket muzzle outside since she ate whatever came near her mouth. New Year's Day 2025 was a trip to the emergence vet since she ate a wad of thin wire. Not much of a cuddler until her last few days when she became very sick. Not much of a barker or howler even thought she was a blue tick beagle and our last beagle buddy Daisy howled at the drop of a hat. She will be sorely missed and the house is too damned quiet. I'm attaching her puppy picture and one from two weeks ago before her health got really bad.
neverenoughcaffeine
A wonderful tribute to Lily. Thanks for sharing her with us. What a darling pup!
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Hi there! Mostly a lurker! Sometimes I leave a comment on threads as tb24601. Anywho!
Here’s a Petmoron if there ever was one, my cat, Freddie. I’ve caught him drinking from the water feeder like this a few times. He’s a pistol!
Freddie is an acrobat! Thanks for sending in this great photo!
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Reprise:
Just to give you a quick chuckle. She was on her favorite hot rock with her head out. When my wife turned on the he sunlamps, she immediately backpedaled until she was fully covered. She’ll be asleep for the next week or two, since it’s still winter
Coelacanth
Nayro sleeps!
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Thank you for sharing your pets and animal photos and stories with us today.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
Outside it’s cold and dreary. Inside the purple-red miniature Cattleya is blooming again.
Don
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Edible Gardening/Putting Things By
Started a batch of naturally fermented kosher dill pickles, and a batch of fresh sauerkraut. Testing these to see if they will be good enough for the LA County Fair culinary competition. Pickles will be ready in about four days; sauerkraut maybe two weeks.
I go by the name By-tor
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They look great! For fair time, you might try growing some dill heads to harvest after they start to turn brown, but before they are dry. Makes a big difference in flavor.
For lower-salt refrigerator pickles (using vinegar rather than natural fermentation), raw vinegar adds a nice flavor. There's a recipe in a past post here. I'll try to find it.
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For those who would like to try growing cabbage, Pinetree has a good selection of types, big and small, red and green, round and long. Danish Ballhead is one which is recommended for sauerkraut.
They also sell dill seed (for seed and weed).
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ART
Courtesy Shane Daniel
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Adventure
Neal in Israel:
From Israel, I'm sending a few shots of a wildflower, the common squill, taken at an archaeological site on the Golan Heights. The appearance of the squill signals the arrival of fall.
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Golan Heights!
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Gardens of The Horde
Anything going on in your garden?
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Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:
ktinthegarden at g mail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
People who keep us thinking past artificial intelligence
—K.T.
R.I.P. Scott Adams
Scott Adams never lost the ability to surprise me with his ideas and observations. He could comment on the same event or situation everyone else was looking at and reveal a new angle or a whole new world. My brain grew every time I heard his voice. What a loss. What a figure.
Walter Kirn
You will see lots of fake news today describing how and why Scott Adams was canceled three years ago. If you want an accurate version of events you should read his obituary at @nypost. The context was crucial and was often misrepresented or omitted, deliberately, by his opponents https://t.co/srzSQD154B
THOMAS SOWELL:My Experience With Artificial Intelligence.
Another target of this particular AI fraud is military historian Victor Davis Hanson. In addition to his profound scholarly writings on military history, Prof. Hanson has also spoken out strongly on many current and controversial issues.
Apparently those who do not agree with him cannot argue effectively against what he said. So they use AI to make him seem to be saying something different.
It's easy enough for the legacy media to change the meaning of what people say WITHOUT AI. We're in for some new experiences.
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VDH discusses what happen with his image and voice, prior to his recent surgery.
Victor Davis Hanson: AI Is Hijacking My Image
Artificial intelligence is being used to steal voices, faces, and reputations. Victor Davis Hanson knows this firsthand.@VDHanson explains the growing problem of AI-generated deepfake videos that falsely use his image, voice, and… pic.twitter.com/2gRrE1fVsr
And here is an update on his successful surgery for a rare lung cancer. He did have a bleeding complication after the surgery, but seems to be on the road to recovery. Prayers may still be in order. Jack Fowler is keeping VDH's business going.
This week we said hello to a new heroine in Iran, and goodbye to a hero at home. But “The Crazy” marches on, both on the streets and in Supreme Court case arguments, where liberal justices continue to not disappoint, providing endless comic entertainment. Here’s a suggestion for the Wall Street swap market types: let’s swap Minnesota for Greenland and Alberta, and swap the Iranian cigarette girl for every AWFL in America.
Long-time Coblogger and commenter "Niedermeyer's Dead Horse" is having significant health issues, and would appreciate the thoughts and prayers of The Horde. If you wish to reach out, use @NiedsG on X/Twitter. [CBD]
Disclose.tv
@disclosetv
30m
JUST IN - DOJ investigating Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for conspiracy to impede immigration agents -- CBS
Podcast: CBD and Sefton chat about the end game in Iran, what to do about the Fed, its supposed "independence," and its hyper-politicized chairman, the housing crunch, and Trump's harebrained suggestion to decrease credit card interest!
Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, and an always interesting observer of the human and political condition, has died. RIP. [CBD]
Tousi TV: France closes embassy in Tehran, US Department of State advises all US citizens to get out of Iran He's been saying that Tuesday will be a decisive day. Other reports say that Trump is in the last stages of planning an action against the mullahs. (And other reports say that Tucker Carlson Simp JD Vance is attempting to get Trump to agree to "negotiations" with Iran -- for fucking what? What do we get out of saving the fucking mullahs and letting them kill and torture their own people? Apart from Tucker Carlson getting to pretend he's a Big Man Influencer and that he's worth all the Qatari money he's receiving.)
Asmongold predicted that AWFLs would turn on immigration the moment we started importing hot women into the country, and he was right via garrett
New Yorkers are shocked after footage goes viral of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Tenant Director stating that white people will be HEAVILY impacted after they transition property "as an individual good to a collective good" [CBD]
My schedule doesn't permit me to comment on the Book Thread in real-time very much. I recently read a book on the scientific evidence for the existence of God. I found the book to be interesting and a good review of the subject matter.
Dear Mr. Sefton,
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