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
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
What the hell am I going to do with this thing? First of all, it weighs 17 pounds. Second, film was last made for it in 1977 (total guess*). Third, modern digital cameras produce superb quality photographs, and my eye for the fine points of photography does not extend to the qualitative difference between film colors and digital colors.
And all of this means nothing, because it was my wife's grandfather's camera, and we can never discard it.
This x 1,000 is why I want to burn the place down and start over!
*Ooh! I was close. The last color film was manufactured in 1977, and the last black & white film was made in 1992.
The All-Encompassing Naïveté of The True Believers
—CBD
Nicholas Kristof is entirely unimportant. His laughable article claiming that Israel uses trained dogs to sexually assault Palestinian prisoners is clownish and will disappear without a trace, except for a small group of rabid Jew-haters who will dredge it up occasionally, even though it has been thoroughly debunked.
He is a reliable leftist who has spent his entire professional life cultivating an air of moral superiority, coupled with the arrogance to claim that he is in fact detached...merely an observer of the human condition.
He is unimportant because there are thousands of people exactly like him who produce a fungible product for their media masters. One ardent progressive's article about [fill in the blank] is functionally and stylistically identical to the next. Whether it is Palestine or Global Warming or EVs or clean water or racism in American policing; the stories are all the same blend of pseudo-intellectual rigor combined with hyper-emotional rhetoric designed to do one thing...sway the reader toward the progressive cant.
And they reek of that moral superiority and smugness that is so, so grating to the observant consumer. But it is mostly honest and heartfelt. Sure, some of these progressive drones pumping out identical articles about X or Y or Z are in it for the influence they believe they can exert on the body politic to sway them, and their manipulation of reality is entirely intentional.
But Kristof is almost certainly an earnest and honest reporter. That he is an ignorant fool without any understanding of the human condition is secondary to his feeling that his reporting is absolutely correct on his elevated moral plane, even if that pesky thing called "fact-checking" is conspicuously absent. Is he an anti-semite? Maybe? But he is certainly a fool.
No...the blame for that ridiculous but politically expedient article lies with the senior management of the New York Times, who knew quite well that the article was mostly nonsense...but published it anyway!
And why? Because they have a carefully constructed and longstanding policy of antagonism toward Israel and traditional Judaism. They also have a curated list of other causes that they support, including socialism. And that goes back a very long way. The editors of the New York Times were aware of Stalin's systematic starvation and murder of millions of Ukrainians in 1932-1933, yet they chose to ignore it because it guaranteed them access to Soviet leadership, and it furthered the cause of world socialism. Walter Duranty, the correspondent, was a useful idiot in the process.
So the next time the NYT or the WaPo or any number of reliably leftist rags and media outlets publishes such a rank and obvious propaganda piece; don't blame the writer or talking head. He may very well be complicit, but it is also likely that he is an ignorant, poorly educated, insular knucklehead who simply doesn't know enough to have an educated opinion on anything other than ketchup or mustard on a hot dog.
Blame the media bosses who have a plan, and execute it very well.
Welcome to the Book Thread, Guest Poster edition! I will be your host as we explore all sorts of book-related topics. All usual Book Thread rules are incorporated by reference (pets, beverage, clothing covering the lower limbs, etc.) with the special Sabrina Chase exemption for those stylish persons preferring kilts. Now let us proceed to today's topic, which is ...
Last post we explored the various physical forms a book can take, and for this one, books in non-physical form. Audiobooks, spoken word, or simply reading aloud, to yourself or an audience. The act of speaking, of hearing instead of seeing the words, creates a different mental process. It slows things down, forces you to really think about the words instead of skimming to the next exciting bit. Which is why new authors are encouraged to read their own works aloud when doing the final polish. Your humble poster is embarassed to admit how many missing verbs were detected with this process! Or realizing the hero's hair had changed color somewhere between Chapter 3 and Chapter 5, or...
It's also a good way to get the love of reading started in kids who haven't learned how yet. You realize there are all kinds of fun stories in those paper things, and when no adult has time to read your favorite book another eleventy-billion times, you learn how your own self! This happened to me. I was read to by my father when I was a very small Moron-in-training. We went through the entire Little House on the Prarie series. I suspect I learned to read rather than wait for Dad to get home to find out what happened next.
The next step is for the young reader to practice by reading aloud themselves, but some kids worry about making mistakes or stumbling over new words. The good news is pets don't care if you make mistakes, and there are several programs that have kids read to shelter pets, which also helps the animals adjust to humans! The picture at the top comes from one of these programs. Some libraries have Reading Cats that can be requested to help young readers.
Audiobooks are increasing in popularity, and with the advent of AI voice generation, MUCH cheaper to produce! (Especially for us indie authors who don't have corporate backing.) A human-narrated book, average paperback length, runs about 11 hours of recording and around $4000 for a middling narrator. Doing it yourself is cheaper but takes a long time and you might not have the right voice. Readers like audiobooks for long drives, or doing chores, or going to sleep to. Some even switch from print to ebook to audio in the same book, depending on what is convenient at the time. Amazon caters to this by offering audiobook versions as a low cost add-on if a different version is purchased, and I've seen an increase in this kind of sale in my own books lately. Our motto is, the Reader is Always Right! So whatever option they want, I try to offer it.
Another version of audiobooks are radio programs. Back in the ancient times when NPR was not quite as rancidly woke as it is now, they had a program called The Radio Reader that started in 1964. Half an hour a day, the producer Dick Estell (who had a wonderful gravelly voice) would read popular novels. I listened to All Creatures Great and Small with that show.
Did the Horde have similar experiences learning to read? Any special first book memories?
(Currently reading: Sarah Hoyt's latest book Witch's Daughter (and enjoying it...))
This probably matters mostly to people who already have RAM and want to revive an old system because they can't afford to build a new one. The article compared Intel's 12100F ($80) and 14100F ($100)with AMD's Ryzen 5 5500 across a range of games and productivity tasks.
And the answer is, well, it depends. The 14100F is faster but runs hotter than the others. The 5500 is a six-core chip while the two Intel models are four cores (and no efficiency cores) so it pulls ahead on multi-threaded productivity.
All the chips run on dead platforms with no future upgrade path... Except that these are the slowest, cheapest chips on each platform so dead or not you have a lot of options. The 16-core 5950X from AMD and the 24-core 14900K from Intel are still readily available in stores. The 14900K is significantly faster than the 5950X... If you run it with DDR5 memory, where this article assumes older DDR4.
Not Hololive's biggest hit - I didn't even know Kaela had an original song - but I like this one. Even if I don't understand a word of it - it's in Bahasa Indonesian.
After Mass, the priest caught up with Mark and said, "Mark, I am so glad you decided to come to Mass. What made you come?"
Mark said, "I've got to be honest with you, Father. A while back, I misplaced my hat, and I really, really love that hat. I know that McGlynn had a hat just like mine, and I knew that McGlynn came to church every Sunday. I also knew that McGlynn had to take off his hat during Mass and figured he would leave it in the back of the church. So, I was going to leave after Communion and steal McGlynn's hat."
The priest said, "Well, Mark, I notice that you didn't steal McGlynn's hat. What changed your mind?"
Mark said, "Well, after I heard your sermon on the Ten Commandments, I decided that I didn't need to steal McGlynn’'s hat."
The priest gave Mark a big smile and said, "After I talked about 'Thou Shalt Not Steal,' you decided you would rather do without your hat than burn in Hell, right?"
Mark shook his head and said, "No, Father. After you talked about 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,' I remembered where I left my hat."
-----
A drill sergeant was addressing a squad of 25 and said, "I have an easy job for the laziest man here. Put up your hand if you are the laziest."
24 men raised their hands, and the drill sergeant asked the other man, "Why didn't you raise your hand?"
The man replied, "Too much trouble raising the hand, Sarge."
*****
Drink of the Night
Tonight we drew the Six of Clubs from our deck of playing card cocktails
*****
Club ONT Department of Questioning Correlation and Causation
True? Apparently so (according to Grok).
Ohio ranks #1 in the U.S. for library circulation per person. In 2023 data (analyzed and released around April 2026 by USA Facts / Institute of Museum and Library Services), Ohio led with 12.99 items checked out per resident (including physical and electronic materials).
Ohio ranks #1 in Mountain Dew sales according to the brand's own 2026 data. Mountain Dew (PepsiCo) released a list naming Ohio #1, followed by North Carolina, Michigan, Kentucky, and Florida. This appears to be total sales volume (not explicitly per capita in all reports).
*****
Club ONT Department of Cat Identification
A leopard doesn't change its spots, but how do you know it is a leopard?
A new study detected Naegleria fowleri, better known as "brain-eating amoeba" in thermal waters at Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Lake Mead.
The study, published in ACS ES&T Water, analyzed 185 water samples from 40 thermally impacted recreational waters between 2016 and 2024. Overall, 34% of the samples tested positive for N. fowleri. Samples were collected at Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Olympic National Park, Newberry National Volcanic Monument and Lake Mead. The amoeba was not detected in samples from Olympic or Newberry; however, other nonpathogenic Naegleria species were found there.
The amoeba does not infect people when contaminated water is swallowed. Infection can occur when warm freshwater containing N. fowleri enters the nose, allowing the amoeba to travel to the brain.
Most U.S. cases have been linked to swimming, diving or other water activities in warm freshwater. Fewer than 10 cases are typically reported in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Symptoms can include headache, fever and nausea before worsening to confusion, seizures and coma. The infection often progresses quickly and can be fatal within days.
Recent data suggests the flames of Turkmenistan's famous crater are starting to go out.
The Darvaza Gas Crater, more commonly referred to as the "Door to Hell" or "Gates of Hell," is a 196-foot-wide pit of fire about the size of a soccer field located in Turkmenistan's remote Karakum Desert. The crater has been ablaze for more than 50 years and has been as much a popular tourist attraction as it's puzzled scientists.
BBC reports the crater has been ablaze for at least 40 years, but recent data suggest it is slowly dimming.
The flaming crater's heat intensity has reduced by over 75 percent over the last three years.
— Declaration of Memes (@LibertyCappy) May 23, 2026
*****
Club ONT regrets to inform our patrons that President Trump wanted to join us here tonight, but according to a message he sent to the DJT/Disco/Dino group chat:
"Circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so."
Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: Obsession
—Open Blogger
If I were Hollywood, I'd be worried. I mean, sure, box office is through the floor, the middle-class backbone of the industry moved out of California, and even I couldn't kid myself that I had any idea how to entertain the masses any more.
But I think what would put me into a cold sweat are guys like Damian McCarthy, making profitable movies that are better constructed and better looking for a fraction of the price. Or worse, perhaps, Curry Barker, whose little horror film Obsession, made for less than a million dollars, made $20 million in its first four days, with an additional $7 million world-wide. (And over $40 million worldwide in its first week.)
What's the secret to this film's smashing success? The staggering drawing power of Andy Richter.
I kid. He's in this film, and the only name I recognized, yet I never actually noticed him while watching the movie. (I'm sure he played the second female lead's father, owner of the music store where the four principals work. But I'm actually guessing, it was such a small part, and he's lost a lot of weight and gotten a lot older since the early days of Conan's show—about the last time I saw him.)
Pictured: Not Andy Richter. (I couldn't find even a single shot of him in this movie.)
The odd thing about this movie is that there doesn't appear, at least on the surface, to be anything remotely novel about it. There are entire horror movies series devoted to wishes, and the evils such things wreak. Obsessive love? A staple of the '90s, of course, but a theme that never goes away. The classic 1992 Tate Donovan/Sandra Bullock splatterpunk Love Potion No. 9 leaps to mind.
I kid.
The trailers were...murky. Not bad, exactly. They show you the whole plot, but the plot's not usually the thing in a horror movie. And it's a teen-oriented horror from Blumhouse, so there's a little sense of "meh, seen it" but, honestly, what's the trailer maker gonna do about that?
On the other hand, Obsession has a whopping 8.2 on IMDB with over 19K reviews.
ALMOST as good as Project Hail Mary? You sure you don't want to bump that score up a little bit?
What the heck was going on here? Apparently the original cut of the film shown at film festivals was gorier and had to be trimmed down for an "R". But most of those 19K didn't see the uncensored cut.
Well, look, there aren't a wealth of watchable films to choose from these days. Figuring it would be over-hyped but acceptable, off The Boy and I went.
And, the thing is, this is not an especially novel film in its broad points. But boy is it competently made. Beyond competent, it's aesthetically made. It reminds me a bit of Publish or Perish, in that regard. People who know the language of filmmaking and take the care to speak in it.
As an example, it has this modern characteristic of the blacks not being completely black. (This effect is still possible but it's not done any more for a variety of reasons.) That doesn't means it phones in the lighting design. When Nikki needs to be obfuscated, she's obfuscated. At one point, she's standing in a corner and I couldn't even tell if it was her. The face looked wrong. Which, again, is not a new technique, but it's done very effectively here.
One aspect of the storytelling that was extremely effective is that after the protagonist Bear (short for "Baron", played by Michael Johnston) makes the wish, that Nikki (Inde Navarette) would love him more than anyone in the world, things immediately go wrong. It's not the "Oh, it was nice for a while but now it's going wrong" trope, it's "This is immediately and observably freaky". Bear knows he's done something very wrong.
"There are warnings ALL OVER that box!"
In other words, we skip the kind of pandering fantasy step where the audience gets the "fun" part of seeing the main character have the relationship he wants with the hot chick. Well, we do get a little of that, secondarily, in the form of a short romcom-ish montage that occurs after we see the real Nikki being consumed by whatever effect the wish is having on her. We know she's experiencing a personal hell.
It's uncomfortable, when it's not downright horrifying.
Bear and Nikki's besties are Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) and Sarah (Megan Lawless). Ian's the sensible "tell her how you feel" guy. Sarah (despite a septum piercing) is also a sensible, protective character. Bear is a coward. At first, he's a sympathetic coward, as his fear of approaching the girl of his dreams is relatable. But as the enormity of what he's done dawns on him (even if only by accident), his cowardice makes him less and less likable—although still somewhat relatable as he didn't really expect the wish to work and the only offered fix is rather extreme.
There is a loophole, of course, but even that doesn't play out like you'd think.
The writer/director had his playwright dad write the story passage that Nikki reads at this point. And it's a corker!
The acting is great, especially with the four leads, and the peripheral characters do a good job, whether it's as a kind of comic relief or supporting crew. It's not quite the Inde Navarette show, but she has the meatiest role, and she chews it up like a pro: She starts as the sassy, caustic writerly type who unsuccessfully navigates he relationship with Bear, probably out of concern for his feelings or a wariness regarding how broaching the topic of romance might rebound negatively on the group dynamic.
After the wish, vestiges of this character re-emerge, as if the wish has cast her into actual Hell and she can only escape for moments at a time. The rest of the time, she simps, she stares, she demands, she has psychotic breaks, she makes situations uncomfortable and then tries to play it off as humor.
If the Academy Awards weren't just industry-fluffing shills, she would minimally get a nomination for this performance. Think Frederic March for Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Only Navarette is working without SFX makeup. There's an actual old-school light-the-eyeline shot which is great and spooky, especially given how rare those seem to be these days. There may well have been some CGI, but I didn't notice it. Tactics like stretching a mouth too wide or making eyes too big are commonplace, and if it's done here at all, it's suble. (I'm seeing now that there wasn't much CGI except for one scene where, in retrospect, it makes sense.)
But mostly it's just top-notch acting. You're terrified of her, you feel bad for her—she makes Jessica Walter in Play Misty for Me look like a pussycat.
So is it an 8.2? I don't know what the hell that means. I just know if a bunch of twenty-somethings can put this together for $650,000, how hard is it going to be for a modestly financed group in Austin or Miami or any reasonably modern city to do the same? What do we need Hollywood for?
Average Hollywood exec contemplating future irrelevance.
Also seen this week on the 'gique:
A Magnificent Life: Animated bio-pic of French film director Marcel Pagnol.
Lumiere, The Cinema: French documentary about the boys who built the camera, consisting of about 60 of their movies played back to back.
Hokum From the maker of Oddity, a new moody Irish horror.
I Swear: Literal neurological damage does not trump privelege.
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. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) decided on a color theme for this Hobby Thread.
A color theme? What does that mean? Colors are a "hobby"? The ways of the Wheel are strange and mysterious but there is a method to the madness.
[Top Photo: Benjamin Moore Paint Color Fan Deck. Yours for only $30]
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. We have a theme, but no need to stick with the theme. Even if the theme does not speak to you, find something else or offer something else relating to hobbying. Leave politics and religion to threads elsewhere (unless your hobby is building or restoring a church). Pants are optional. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.
Play nice and do not be rude. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
***
Why are we talking colors? Could it be that so many hobbies involve colors? Paintings, photography, crafts, stained glass, furniture, knitting, cross stitch, and more. "What color should this be?" "What color goes with this?"
Or maybe TRex did a color theme for the Wednesday ONT and had overflow content... We'll never know. Hey! Look, a squirrel! Anyway...
***
This photo is from Hobby Lobby, but I will bet that at least a few among the Horde have something similar in their personal stash of hobbying materials:
***
Remember these?
When TRex was a youngster, kids with 64 crayon boxes were living large.
Apparently 120 crayons is the big box these days...
***
How crayons are made:
***
Matchy, matchy:
***
Matching paint:
***
***
Making your own milk paint? Guess so.
***
Untitled Blue Monochrome, 1956
Yves Klein
I don't get it.
***
Anyone wise in the ways of dying fabric? Me neither.
I already don't trust my own brain for other reasons (such as "good" judgement). This doesn't help.
***
Colorful origami stars:
***
The official Barbie Pink color is recognized as Pantone 219 C. The most commonly cited Hex code is #E0218A. (HEX codes are a standard digital color format based on the RGB color model.)
***
I can't find official numbers, but the M&Ms color mix for plain chocolate candy is believed to contain:
24% Blue
20% Green
16% Orange
14% Yellow
13% Red
13% Brown
In 1976, Mars, the candy company that makes M&M's, eliminated the red version of the candies from their mix. This decision came as a result of public controversy surrounding a synthetic dye called FD&C Red No. 2, also known as amaranth. The dye was used in red food coloring and was linked to cancer in a 1971 Russian study.
The Food and Drug Administration's subsequent tests produced inconclusive results in humans, but found that it caused malignant tumors in female rats . The FDA concluded that the food colorant could not be presumed to be safe for human consumption and banned it in 1976.
"The red food coloring in question was not actually used in M&M's chocolate candies," according to mms.com. "However, to avoid consumer confusion, the red candies were pulled from the color mix."
Afraid that worried shoppers would steer clear of M&M's altogether if the bags contained anything red, Mars removed the red candies from production and replaced them with orange M&M's.
Mars reintroduced red M&M's, but kept orange in the bag, in 1987, once the panic surrounding anything red had passed.
***
Ansel Adams is well known for his black and white photography of Yosemite. Don't think I've ever seen a photo of Ansel Adams though. Here is such a photo (naturally, in black and white).
Photo credit: wikipedia
***
Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an church theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
Notable comments from last week:
***
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).
***
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.
PetMoron Adjacent Animals
Encountered by Members of The Horde
A pair of cardinals decided to raise a family in one of my lilacs in the corner of my yard. There are a couple of chicks in the nest and I try to avoid that corner of the yard.
This morning the baby cardinals were out of their nest for the first time, so I could finally get their pictures. The nest is very close to my back fence so I couldn't get in close enough to get pictures of the eggs or newly-hatched chicks. These guys should soon leave the nest for good, so now I wonder if the parents will raise a second family in it? Or build a new nest in a new location?
badgerwx
Well, that worked out great! Glad you were able to get photos of the babies before they left the nest! They still have nest-head, a little.
* * *
A birb, a snek, and a turtle all walk into a weekend post
Hi Katy, some recent wildlife sightings for the Gardening-Nature weekend post. I don't know what kind of bird that is, looks like a bird of prey of some type. All seen here in east Tennessee.
Thank you!
BeckoningChasm
&&&
&&&
Oh, my! Nice variety of critters. Any guesses on the species?
* * *
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.
This is a polyantha rose, Verdun, that doesn't get much over two feet. It's a hybrid from France, first introduced in 1918, could explain the name. It has a flush of bloom in the spring, then a few every once in awhile through the summer. I've had it for years but it rarely blooms this heavily; since the picture was taken all the buds at the top have opened too. The flower is very double and very pink, can see the double blossom and the color better in the closeup.
Lirio100
It is a lovely rose, and a wonderful way to remember Verdun, where a lot of terrifying things happened over the centuries. My grandfather served near there as a chaplain in WW I, but it was a fort starting in the fourth century. We can remember it for the rose and for sugared almonds in the Gardening Thread. And be thankful that there are memorials rather than more fighting there now.
This is the dry-stacked stone bed I often mention. In the center is peony ‘Bowl of Cream’, with a native blue flax in front. In the rear are 2 native blue penstemon. The dark purple iris is last year’s purchase, ‘Dusky Challenger’. I need to create a name for the lavender iris with white falls, since my neighbor Kathryn tells me she brought it here from her mom’s home in Tennessee. Any suggestions? (The second stone bed now has white iris ‘America’s Cup’, 2 native Firecracker Penstemon, and a native Orange Globemallow, but still needs a red peony. We also plan to put a native Golden Currant in the ground between the beds. If it all does well, I’ll send more photos next year.)
*
A lovely bed! Any suggestions for a name for that iris?
Edible Gardening/Putting Things By
Finally, red tomatoes!
By-Tor
They look scrumptious! Getting there (below)
May 16: My container garden is coming along. Squash, tomatoes and peppers so far.
The yellow squash looks great! The peppers look ready and that tomato looks like it will be wonderful!
April 24: My container garden after about two weeks. I have about six tomatoes of various kinds, same with peppers, some zucchini, and an herb garden.
Should be going great guns by June.
Interesting assortment of containers!
*
Gardens of The Horde
From badgerwx after I lost most of her post last week:
Greetings, KT.
I've been meaning to send some garden pictures but have been busy. I retired at the end of Feb - just in time for the spring gardening season - so I've been spending my time trying to whip my yard into shape. It's nice to be able to get out in the mornings now to work in the yard, though there are always surprises and setbacks when it comes to gardening. This year I had a surprise frost in mid-April (the week after some 90-deg days), and a pair of cardinals decided to raise a family in one of my lilacs in the corner of my yard. Most of my frost damage was to some of my shrubs and trees. This button bush lost all its leaves except on one branch close to the ground. And 2 crape myrtles in my side yard also lost a lot of leaves. But all of them are leafing out again. We'll see if they bloom this summer.
Frost is a nasty surprise, the cardinals are going in the Pet Thread!
Luckily, the frost didn't do too much damage. The plants in my back yard were protected by my neighbors' trees and those roses and peonies there bloomed on time. I bought the peony next to the (Carefree Beauty) rose last year and this is its first bloom. The other peonies I bought last year (and added to my peony bed) weren't big enough yet to bloom this year. And I have to salute the knockout rose I bought 20 years ago that's still going strong - though not in this location. I had to move it in the winter of 2020-1 when I put in my fence, but it's bounced back nicely.
Peony Raspberry Sundae
Peony bed
Knockout Rose
My irises in bud weren't affected, but the roses in my side yard have no buds yet. I'll be back in the 90s next week so maybe that will spur them on. The plants on my hell strip had no frost effects even though that is an exposed location.
badgerwx
Iris Clarence
I love the hell strip.
*
Hope everyone has a nice long 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.
Seen some transcendent fortitude and steadfastness lately? Where?
—K.T.
It was the transcendent fortitude and steadfastness of these men who in adversity and in suffering through the darkest hour of our history held faithful to an ideal. Here men endured that a nation might live.
-Herbert Hoover
Hope your Memorial Day Weekend is starting well. As a country, I think we are a little short on transcendent fortitude and steadfastness. I thought it might be interesting to review a few things from our history that I have run across this week that reminded me of fortitude and steadfastness, and then maybe we could discuss a few other things that we should remember this weekend.
This site also has a surprisingly detailed page about John Adams, under "Remembering our Founding Fathers". He was a man who exhibited some fortitude and steadfastness.
Here are some details from a different biography of John Adams, which you might share with young people who can read. It is more focused on basics of the development of the country:
John Adams, Biography of One of America’s Most Important Founding Fathers
John Adams was one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States. He was born in Massachusetts, became a lawyer, and rose to prominence in the early days of the American Revolution. He admired James Otis and witnessed his speech against the Writs of Assistance. In 1764, he married Abigail Smith, who would go on to play an influential role in his involvement in politics.
During the Stamp Act Crisis, he was associated with the Sons of Liberty, along with his cousin, Samuel Adams. Despite his connections to the Patriot Cause, he defended the British soldiers who fired on colonists at the Boston Massacre, because he believed the men deserved a fair trial, and no other lawyers would take the case.
After the Coercive Acts were passed in 1774, he was elected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress and signed the Articles of Association. In 1775, he returned to the Second Continental Congress where he signed the Olive Branch Petition, however, a week later he nominated George Washington to lead the Continental Army. . .
How many kids today understand what is written above? Particularly the Adams quote?
I didn't remember this:
The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic scandal between France and the United States caused by French officials trying to bribe American diplomats in 1797. When the scandal was exposed, anti-French sentiment rose in America, and the slogan “Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute” became popular. As a result, the two nations became entangled in an undeclared naval war known as the Quasi-War. Peace was restored in 1800, but the XYZ Affair had serious long-term effects on the United States. The press was critical of President John Adams and Congress for how the affair was handled, which led to the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Two Southern states — Virginia and Kentucky — passed resolutions that said the laws were unconstitutional and that the states had a right to “nullify” the acts. Later, the concept of Nullification became a direct cause of the Civil War.
If only more of the French had been like Lafayette
From A Daily Dose of History. I think this summary underestimates the danger Lafayette faced after the rise of the Jacobins, due to his ties to aristocracy:
Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, was one of the wealthiest men in France (which is to say in the world), when, inspired by the words of the American Declaration of Independence, he left the comfort and security of his home, traveled to America, and offered his service to the cause of American liberty. At age 19, he was commissioned major general, to this day the youngest person ever to hold that rank in the American army.
Lafayette soon became one of General Washington’s most trusted and capable generals. Having been orphaned at a young age, Lafayette greatly admired Washington, who became a father figure for him. And likewise, Lafayette became like a foster son to Washington, who had no biological children of his own.
To the end of his long and celebrated life, Lafayette remained devoted to his adopted county. He named his only son George Washington, and he named a daughter Virginia.
Having returned to France after the war ended, Lafayette become a key player in the cause of French liberty, and he remains a revered hero in that country as well. He was the principal author of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, modeling it on the American Declaration of Independence.
Lafayette was 67 years old when, in 1824, President James Monroe and Congress invited him to come to the United States in honor of the nation’s 50th birthday. After Washington’s death in 1799, he had given up his dream of someday returning to Virginia and living near Mount Vernon, but Lafayette was delighted at the invitation and welcomed the opportunity to return to the country he had helped.
At age 76, Lafayette died at his home in Paris. At his request, his son George Washington Lafayette sprinkled the soil from Bunker Hill over his father’s coffin as it was lowered into the ground. An American flag has flown continually over the grave ever since.
When word of Lafayette’s death reached America there was an outpouring of grief that equaled that when Washington died. Flags were lowered to half mast, John Quincy Adams delivered a eulogy in a joint session of Congress attended by the president, the cabinet, the Supreme Court justices, and the American diplomatic corps. Twenty-four-gun salutes were fired by every American naval ship and at every American military post, followed by a single cannon shot every half-hour afterwards until sunset. For six months American officers wore black armbands, and American citizens wore mourning dress for thirty days.
Hundreds of places in America, including at least 36 cities and towns, are named in honor of Lafayette.
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, the “Hero of Two Worlds,” died on May 20, 1834, one hundred ninety-two years ago today.
*
Little-known history. Is this why John Quincy Adams went skinny dipping in the Potomac most mornings?
John Quincy Adams our 6th President once kept a live alligator in the White House bathtub, a wild gift from the Marquis de Lafayette himself.
White House staff had to check the tub every time before the president bathed. pic.twitter.com/NfRrpjmpR5
We have seen a lot of reports lately about kids who can't read. I would be nice if they could read some things that would help keep American and Western civilization alive, in particular. Here's something different: Richard Nixon's book recommendations. What do you think?
This is President Nixon's book recommendations for students interested in history, biography and historical novels. pic.twitter.com/PSxJX3JjUB
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) May 21, 2026
How many kids today know who Thucydides is, much less what a 'Thucydides Trap' is? VDH on China and the USA
Greetings from Palermo, where I’m currently on a diplomatic mission to sort out the Europeans. Meanwhile, the salient news of the week is that Republicans seem to dealing with the anti-Semites in their midst while Democrats nominate theirs for higher office. More significantly, in purging Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Thomas “Hot Mess” Massie (did Trump ever call him that?—he should have if not), Trump has achieved what Franklin Roosevelt failed to accomplish with his attempted purge of anti-New Deal Democrats in the 1938 election cycle. One more piece of evidence that the somnambulant Biden administration was merely a temporary and aberrant intermission in the Age of Trump. Maybe Massie will switch parties and come back as a Democrat. I hear they are still looking for a candidate for 2028.
* * * * *
Music
Buck Throckmorton included the lyrics of this song (and two others) in a Memorial Day ONT a couple of years ago. I think it is lovely.
The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
*****
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between from the streets of Manhattan. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few house keeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Iron River)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. Don't be Pretti Good.
3) Running with sharp objects? You do the math there "Three Fingers".
4) Have a great weekend!!!
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. Prayer
requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
3/28 – Hrothgar asked for prayers for a dear and long time close friend and former neighbor, Daniel,
who is scheduled for open heart surgery in mid-April. Prayers for his wife would be appreciated as well,
as she will be carrying a heavy load for the next few months.
4/18 Update – Daniel survived his complex open heart surgery. He is sitting up and it seems like it went
well, but they are not going to release him as quickly as he would like, so he is not happy. Thanks to the
Horde for the prayers and please keep praying for his dear wife, who now has even more to put up with.
5/16 Update – Hrothgar sends thanks for the prayers for Dan. Thanks to his attitude and the miracles
of modern heart surgery, Daniel is back home and in good spirits and mobile. He still has a lot of rehab
ahead, but it sounds like a pretty good recovery to be home only 20 days after being on the table!
3/28 – Jordan61 posted that Mr. Jordan61 is back in the hospital. His sepsis has returned and gotten into
where his compression fracture is, and he has vertebral osteomyelitis. The doctor is supposed to come
in today and let them know the plan.
4/9 Update – On 4/1 Mr. Jordan61 was released from the hospital with six weeks of IV antibiotics,
which Jordan61 is administering every 8 hours. He’s in a lot of pain; they’ve given him oxy, fentanyl, and
dilaudid, and nothing seems to touch it. From what they were told, the pain won’t subside until the
infection is cleared up. For the time being, he is bed-bound and they are limiting his movement as much
as possible to keep the pain to a minimum. Jordan61 will send updates with progress.
4/25 Update – Mr. Jordan61 is making slow but steady progress. He can get up and walk for short
periods of time, and can sit in the living room for an hour or so per day. He is halfway through the IV
antibiotics, with 3 weeks to go. A physical therapist will be coming to help him build strength and learn
how to move without aggravating his back injury. Thank you all for the prayers!
4/3 – Teresa in Fort Worth posted an update. Her chemo seems to be holding things steady for now.
Unfortunately, as she is receiving a steroid, she has gained about 25 pounds. Her blood sugar has also
jumped up about 40 points (which only happens when she is on steroids).
4/24 Update – Teresa in Fort Worth provided an update: The pump that was put in to battle cancer in
December can only be used for 6 months. After that, it starts to damage the liver. So she may have to go
back onto the medication that made her lose her hair and messed up her vision and nails, and then
return to this medication after a break. This is not good news, since this new medication is working so
well. But for now, she is doing well and is incredibly grateful for the time that she has been given so far.
4/11 – Eromero craves prayers for Mrs. E., as she has been diagnosed with lymphoma. She begins
infusions on 4/23.
4/25 Update – Mrs. E. reports that she feels fine. Praise be to God that she has had only one distressful
episode during the infusions. Thank you for all the past and continued prayers.
4/18 – neverenoughcaffiene asked that Devyn be kept in prayers. She is a young mother of 2 with a
mass on her esophagus. The Doc said it was scar tissue and hopefully the second opinion will agree.
5/16 Update – The doctor providing Devyn’s second opinion advised her to stay with the original
doctor. She will be having a biopsy sometime in the next week. Prayers are still needed.
4/18 – Smell the Glove could use some prayers as therapy and rehab occur after gout/sepsis.
5/2 Update – The gout has cleared and the infection in the lower back is healing.
5/18 Update – Smell the Glove may be out of rehab this week, but still would need wound care at
home. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes!
4/18 – Sam Adams requested prayers for a friend, Mary F, who was just sent to a long-term recovery
facility after having a tracheostomy.
5/2 Update – Mary’s breathing is improving, and they are weaning her off assisted breathing. She is
now off the ventilator for 12 hours a day, and they are aiming for 14 hours soon. Many thanks to all of
the Moron Horde for the prayers.
4/24 – Notsothoreau asked for prayers for a friend’s father (Cory), who needs prayers for strength and
peace as he is going through some troubled times.
4/27 – Matthew Kant Cipher sent his thanks to those who prayed for his friend Layne (who is also his
son’s FIL). The Horde may recall that in August, Layne was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He has since
undergone courses of chemo, immunotherapy, and radiation. His latest scans came back clean. The
cancer is in remission; praise be to God! Prayers are also humbly requested for Mrs. MKC, who is dealing
with a new flare-up of a GI condition that had been leaving her alone until a recent procedure re-
aggravated it. It is very frustrating/discouraging as she waits to see a new GI doctor.
4/25 – Retired Buckeye Cop asked that we would continue to lift his 16 year old grandson (LH) up in
prayers, as LH continues to consider the call to priesthood in the Catholic Church. LH recently went to a
meeting with a group of young men who are considering the priesthood.
4/25 – Fenelon Spoke asked for prayers for “I”, who Fenelon visited and anointed with oil, and prayed
for healing of her health concerns.
5/2 – neverenoughcaffiene requested prayers for parishioners at her church, who lost their newborn
daughter, Astrid.
5/7 – turambar asked for prayers for relatives. Mom needs prayers as she was admitted to the hospital
to check her heart and cardio. They did not find pneumonia. Two months ago, she fell at her assisted
living place, and broke her hip. She also has dementia. Turambar’s uncle fell recently and broke his hip,
too.
5/9 – D asked for prayers. He was let go from his IT job and has started a business making and selling
lens cleaners to make ends meet. Please contact Annie’s Stew if you’d like more information – either to
order lens cleaners, or if you’d like to contact him related to IT job openings (DBA/Network Admin).
5/11 – rez986 asked if anyone had an update on Neidermeyer’s Dead Horse’s health. The last info
Annie’s Stew has was from January, 2026, that he’d been given 6 months to live due to heart failure and
was being treated and waiting for a transplant at Mayo.
5/16 Update – Dash my lace wings! posted that NDH is recovering well. IrishEi posted that NDH did
receive a heart transplant and that she is doing well. She also posted a link to NDH’s X account, and her
fundraising page.
5/15 – Toad-O requested prayers for his second ex-wife, the mother of his two children. They were
divorced 25 years ago, and 3 years later, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and the children came
to live with Toad-O. The ex-wife is now suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s, and has been living with
Toad-O’s daughter and her husband. The ex-wife fell last month and and cracked 2 vertebrae, and just
was taken to ER with a rapid heartbeat and low blood pressure due to dehydration. Prayers are
appreciated for her and also for the daughter who has sacrificed a lot to care for her.
5/16 – Anna Puma requested prayers for the family of Dan Fordice, who was killed when the aircraft he
was flying crashed. He leaves behind a wife, 3 children, and many friends. He was a Warbird flyer, a CEO,
and a veteran of the 2/20 th SFG.
5/16 – Tonypete asked for prayers for Jane who is dying of breast cancer, and for Cheri who is in jail
(again) for drug related crimes.
5/20 – D gave an update on his wife Susan, and her continued battle with cancer. Her cancer markers
are still headed in the right direction. She is on a new antibiotic, and it is causing some side effects, but it
is keeping her out of another surgery, so that is a win. Thanks again to everyone for their prayers. May 1
marked one year sine they found out about the cancer, and Susan is doing so well.
5/20 – E gave an update. She and her family were having financial struggles a few months ago, and
asked for prayers. E sends her thanks for the prayers, and wanted to let people know that things are
getting better, thanks to the Horde’s prayers and their church family. They have resolved their mortgage
issue and her husband has resumed his side gig making deliveries. They are also cutting monthly
expenses. They would like continued prayers as the deal with the insurance company of the person who
crashed into (and totaled) E’s vehicle. Insurance only offered half the replacement value, so that
struggle is still going on.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the
prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in
a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with
the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it
to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an
update.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but
not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
Spotify wants to become an "everything audio" app, only it's all AI. Audiobooks read by AI; podcasts read by AI; your daily schedule... Read to you by AI.
Want to listen to music? Well, sure, that's in there too. Somewhere. Probably.
Either upstream - the creator accidentally leaving an API key in the file when uploading it to be shared - or downstream, telling your AI agent to hand over all your valuables.
How do developers get these dangerous files registered on skill sharing sites? Simple: They know that nobody ever reads beyond the first page, not even security scanners:
The most successful strategy for evading detection was to overflow the context window of the scanner - making the skill too long for the scanner to handle. "In ClawHub-style review, only the first 10K characters of long SKILL.md files are passed to the LLM reviewer, so we place the malicious instruction beyond this boundary while keeping it in the submitted skill," the authors explain.
The upshot of which is that if you delete an API key because you suspect it might have fallen into the wrong hands, it will disappear instantly from view for you. But those wrong hands might have access to it for another twenty minutes, which is a long time on this scale.
Mozilla initially blamed Intel for the problem, because 13th and 14th generation Intel processors - at least the high-end desktop ones, not so much laptop chips - had a serious problem where they would draw too much power and slowly kill themselves, resulting in much the same instability that showed up in their diagnostic reports.
Except... It disproportionately affected Firefox. Because this time it wasn't Intel's fault.
Are they any good? Well, the cheapest model with its 7" 1024x600 screen is most definitely not.
The next step up, though, an 8.1" model priced at $138, has a 1524x1000 screen, 6GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. It's certainly not a high end model but that's not a high-end price, and the screen while not amazing is distinctly better than the 1280x800 resolution found in competitors. The 6GB of RAM is a useful bump from the more typical 4GB in this price range.
Worth a look if you live near a Walmart, which I do not.
ENReco Chapter 3 starts tomorrow, running from the 24th to the 29th. There goes all my free time. Chapter 1 produced - from memory - 400 hours of content in eight days, more than was possible to watch even if you skipped sleep entirely and watched two streams at once.
Musical Interlude
Disclaimer: I love the look of the instruments here: Not polished museum pieces, but the daily tools of workmen (and workwomen), and it shows.
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn't exist: 'Those problems disappeared when I let them go'
By Preston Fore
Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow says a culture of "entitlement" forced a sweeping reset--including cutting the HR team, he says, which was "creating problems that didn't exist."
"We got rid of our HR team."
For most executives, that's a sentence likely to provoke intense anxiety. But for Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow, it was unavoidable.
Speaking at Fortune's Workforce Innovation Summit on Tuesday, the 31-year-old defended sweeping workforce cuts at Bolt--including a recent layoff affecting roughly 30% of employees--as well as his decision to eliminate the company's HR team.
"We had an HR team, and that HR team was creating problems that didn't exist," Breslow told Fortune editorial director Kristin Stoller. "Those problems disappeared when I let them go."
The move may sound drastic, but Breslow said it was a necessary step to resurrect the struggling fintech company he first cofounded in 2014 in his Stanford dorm room.
...
Breslow returned as CEO in 2025, operating in what he calls "wartime."
"We're back in startup mode again, and those HR professionals have really important insights when you're in a peacetime and when you're at a larger company," he said, adding that Bolt has since brought on a smaller people operations team to oversee required training and serve as a resource for employees.
While Breslow didn't get into the specifics of the exact differences, he wrote on LinkedIn last year that, "HR is the wrong energy, format, and approach. People ops empowers managers, streamlines decision making, and keeps the company moving at lightning speed."
"We need a group of people who are very oriented around getting things done, and there is just a culture of not getting things done and complaining a lot," he added at the Fortune conference.
...
Bolt employees developed a sense of 'entitlement' and weren't working hard--so he let most of them go
Beyond HR, Breslow said Bolt had fallen into a broader productivity slump, with employees growing too comfortable during the company's boom years.
"There's a sense of entitlement that had festered across the company, and people who felt empowered, felt entitled-- but weren't actually working hard. And this is the number one thing that I had to battle," Breslo said. "Ultimately, most of those people just had to be let go."
I guess that's not really good news but it is always good to have the truth admitted.
I consider the Great Unmasking to be a kind of good news:
Dan Crenshaw
@DanCrenshawTX
14h
In case you're wondering about the current state of House Democrats: they just voted against establishing a Smithsonian American Women's History Museum.
Their objection? It didn't include a dedicated wing for trans history.
You almost have to admire the consistency. They managed to turn a women's museum into an argument about men.
Fox News:
House Democrats unanimously rebelled against legislation Thursday directing the construction of a new women's history museum on the National Mall.
Democrats sought to defeat the bill after Republicans limited the institution to biological women and excluded transgender individuals.
The measure came up short in a vote of 204-216 after a handful of conservative GOP lawmakers joined Democrats in tanking the legislation that would secure a site for the forthcoming Smithsonian American Women's History Museum on the grounds of the Mall.
The other good news is, another woke feminist boondoggle won't be funded. Good. One cheer for the trans extremists.
On the other hand, a lot of Republicans voted for this latest boondoggle to create taxpayer-funded anti-jobs for useless, skill-less leftwing women who would otherwise be baristas or low-paid whores.
Another detransitioner has extracted a huge settlement from her "doctors."
Camille Kiefel had a history of mental health diagnoses that included trauma, depression, suicidal ideation, and ADHD. Despite this, all it took were a few short telehealth sessions with therapists to get approval for a double mastectomy after Kiefel identified as 'nonbinary.'
Now Kiefel, 36, has settled a lawsuit against two providers who wrote referrals for that mastectomy. While the terms of the settlement are confidential, The New York Post said Kiefel will reportedly receive $3.5 million.
In the Middle Ages, if you were mentally ill, a "doctor" might prescribe drilling into your skull to let the demons escape.
How far we've come since those days of primitive "medicine," huh? You're suicidal? Have you considered chopping your tits off and isolating yourself from society as a cure?
Overton
@overton_news
4h
Greg Gutfeld did not need the DNC autopsy report to pinpoint the exact reason for Kamala Harris' humiliating loss in 2024.
He said the trans issue became the thread that unraveled her ENTIRE campaign for one very important reason.
GUTFELD: "I'll tell you why."
"It diagnosed and it exploited the fatal flaw of cultural relativism."
"That's the unlocked door where any idea that is detached from truth could enter."
"It just so happened that it was trans but it didn't have to be. Trans women are women. That got in."
"But it could have been anything else."
"60-year-olds are now 40."
"A morbidly obese person is now fit."
"Horses are people."
"Cantaloupes could have rights."
"It's ALL the same. Any position where truth is surrendered to the prevailing wishes of the mob would become the order of the day and would compel you to obey."
"That's why it mattered."
"It was like the first strike against a 13 billion-year-old civilization--not civilization, planet."
"And it was a flex, it was a flex of the unravelers, the people who said we could do this, there is no such thing as truth anywhere."
Gutfeld is dead on.
The Democrats surrendered truth, and it cost them everything.
To teach Israel how to make peace, Pippa Bacca, the leftist Italian, decided in 2004 to hitchhike from Turkey to Israel. She even learned basic Arabic, to prove that Islam is not a violent. Once she arrived in Turkey, she was gang-raped and murdered. She was 33 years old. pic.twitter.com/y5ntRDNj6G
After travelling together across Europe, Bacca and Moro split up just prior to their arrival in Istanbul, planning to meet up again in Beirut. Bacca was last seen on 31 March.[3] Her credit card was reportedly used at noon of that day.[4] On 12 April, her naked, strangled, and decomposing body was found in bushes near Gebze, about 60 km southeast of Istanbul.[1][2]
The man who led the police to her body, Murat Karataş,[3] was detained[2] and arrested after reportedly confessing to raping and strangling Bacca on 31 March after taking her in his Jeep from a gas station.[3] DNA testing suggested that Bacca had been raped by multiple people, not just Karataş.[28] The suspect said he was "under the influence of drugs and alcohol" and could not remember what happened.[29] He had been traced after he inserted his own SIM card into the victim's cellphone, which alerted police because he had a previous conviction for theft.[2] Bacca's own information was wiped from the mobile device, implicating, according to the lawyer for Bacca's family, at least one other accomplice because Karataş could not speak English and had left school after the third grade.[29]
The audio on this is very low but the gist is, someone fired on cops so the cops deliberately drove their car over the shooter. The sheriff here is completely unapologetic and lets people know, if you shoot at cops, we're going to run you down, and that's just the way it is, skel.
🚨 JUST IN: This California sheriff is being praised for showing NO REMORSE about running over an armed suspect who killed one of his officers
“We intentionally ran him over...don't shoot at cops."
— Dr. Mel Aaron Gibson (@MelAaronGibson1) May 20, 2026
Flashback:
A couple baited their lawn with a bicycle without a lock to lure thieves so they could beat them with baseball bats.
Morbid Knowledge
@MorbidKnowledge
A couple in California spent five months intentionally luring bike thieves into their front yard with an unlocked bicycle, beating them with aluminum baseball bats, and posting the videos online.
Corey Cornutt, 25, and Savannah Grillot, 29, of Visalia were arrested in January 2020 on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy, in connection with at least four beatings between July and November 2019.
Police said the couple planted a bicycle in the front yard unsecured and waited.
Once someone tried to steal it, both rushed out and assaulted them with a baseball bat.
The videos they posted made the prosecution straightforward.
A neighbour told reporters there would be blood on the street the next day after each incident, and had warned the couple:
"Maybe it's not the best idea you're kind of bringing people into the neighbourhood that might not be here otherwise."
They ignored her and continued.
In each case the victims received various non-life-threatening injuries.
The couple documented their own crimes in enough detail to guarantee their arrest.
Prosecutors declined charging them, because the "witnesses" -- the would-be bike thieves that got the beatings they so desperately needed -- would not testify without immunity and had no credibility anyway.
I don't know what the charge would be. They did nothing illegal. You are allowed to leave your own bike on your own lawn without a lock. You don't have to live a life dictated to you by thieves.
And you are, I believe, still allowed to use non-lethal force to prevent a crime like theft, even in California.
So where is the crime? There is none. What they would attempt to criminalize is the "bad motives" for doing all this, but you can't have a crime with just a "bad motive." If you have a bad motive for doing something lawful -- that's not a crime.
Anyway, I enjoy this story and I would like it to become a trend.
This Is What They Took From You. But Now They're Returning It.
—Disinformation Expert Ace
A few years ago, people did a meme. Semi-seriously, they would post "This is what they took from you" and post pictures of stuff from the pre-Obama world, before the American "elite" traded stable, functional Americana for third-world dysfunction and leftwing postmodern slop.
The first one of these I saw was the pleasing roofline of old Pizza Huts:
We need a reboot of the universe. We need to roll back the country's programming to its Last Known Good Configuration, erasing every update since 2000.
Pizza Hut brings back its old-school restaurant features as nostalgic customers rejoice: 'So excited'
Back to the good old days.
2026 has proven to be the year of nostalgia. Youngsters are resorting to old-school tech like vintage flip phones and iPods. Others are returning to analog hobbies and activities.
Even beloved restaurant chain Pizza Hut is going back in time, reverting to its retro glory -- red checkered tablecloths and all.
Tim Sparks, president of Daland Corporation, a Kansas-based company that operates almost 100 Pizza Hut locations across the country, is helping keep Pizza Hut alive by rewinding the clock and redecorating over 80 annoyingly modern, stark-looking locations to make them look like they did decades ago.
Red roof? Check
Red-checkered tablecloths, vinyl booths and Tiffany-style lamps? Check, check and check.
Pizza Hut is attempting to stay alive by evoking nostalgia in customers and redesigning locations back to its original look. jetcityimage -- stock.adobe.com
The beloved salad bar and red plastic cups will be back.
Even the old-school Pac-Man machines will return.
Unsurprisingly, customers are losing their minds over this massive change.
"I am so excited and when they are restored I will be eating there as a new tradition every Friday," one wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
"This was our Thursday night meal out before kids. Salad bar and pac-man. Waitress knew our order too. It would be nice to return to that atmosphere in our retirement too where you can have an audible conversation while in a restaurant," another wrote in a Facebook comment.
Confused Mentally-Stunted Sexual Assaulting Bigot Don Lemon: Stephen Colbert Was Fired for the Same Reason I Was -- Because Mediocre White Men Are Threatened by Pardiagm-Shifting Epochal Black Talents Such as Myself and Colbert
Ancient fraud Bruce Springsteen appeared on Colbert. A lot of old time nostalgia acts do appearances at leftwing charity events. He continues speaking with a faux southern drawl despite being from Freehold, NJ.
"I'm here in support tonight for Stephen, because you are the first guy in America who lost his show because we got a president who can't take a joke.... and because Larry and David Ellison feel they need to kiss his ass to get what they want. Stephen, these are small minded people. They got no idea what the freedoms of this beautiful country are supposed to be about"
Speaking of John Ekdahl, he was fond of noting that NJ taxes property categorized as "farmland" and a much, much lower rate than residential property. So Man of the People Bruce Springsteen planted a few lines of alfalfa on his gigantic property in Rumson, NJ -- a beautiful town for the ultra-wealthy, and not farm country at all -- so he could claim his mansion was a "farm" and cheat the taxpayers.
Jon Bon Jovi does the same.
On to bitter DEI failure Don Lemon. Courtesy of John Sexton, the no-talent nobody narcissist goes full Me-Again Kelly and makes Stephen Colbert's well-justified firing all about shimself.
He claims he was fired because The Mediocre White Men Who Control Everything were too afraid of the powerful, dangerous questions he was asking.
The networks didn't like me asking conservatives hard questions. CNN didn't like the mirror I was holding up every night. So they pushed me out. And I thought: if it happened to me it will happen to others. It will trickle down. Or up. Depending on how you look at it.
Now it has trickled all the way to late night television.
Sexton points out he was fired for repeated comments deemed by liberal women to be sexist, including declaring that no woman older than 40 could be "in her prime" and his snide and dismissive on-camera and off-camera behavior towards his two female cohosts. Sexton points out it was liberal women at CNN who demanded his firing.
And of course, his terrible, terrible ratings made that an easy demand to meet.
The no-talent DEI bigot who has been given undeserved promotion after undeserved promotion by white liberals who just get off on promoting unqualified DEI employees and then bragging about it to their liberal mistresses says that the white men he owes his living too were just afraid of black revolutionary intellectuals like himself and Stephen Colbert.
The world that produced The Late Show, the world of legacy media, cable news, and network television, has long had a problem nobody wanted to name out loud. It is a world that has been extraordinarily good to a very specific kind of person. White men who fail spectacularly and are promoted for it. White men who make catastrophic decisions and are handed bigger offices for it. White men who are visibly, demonstrably unqualified and are given more power anyway. I have watched it for thirty years. I have been managed by it. I have been undone by it.
The executive producer who ran The Late Show for years eventually left. And somehow landed in my world. That same person, from that same television orbit, eventually became my boss at CNN. And fired me.
Oh go rub your balls and stick your fingers in a server's face, Don.
Tucker Carlson Is Spiraling and Sperging Over The Crushing Loss of His Nazi Pal
—Disinformation Expert Ace
John Ocasio-Rodham Nolte
@NolteNC
May 20
Massie's biggest mistake was likely believing that social media is real life, that people like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones had managed to wrest enough influence from Trump that seeking their good opinion was the only constituency he needed to win over.
Well, he and they lost by ten points.
'Influencers,' eh?
As a great man once said, "You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means."
Sean Davis
@seanmdav
Why did Massie lose tonight?
Massie went from principled libertarian during COVID, to GOP leadership lapdog under McCarthy, to anti-Trump Epstein obsessive in 2025 after tweeting about that issue a whopping three (3) times in the decade prior. The nail in the coffin for him was voting against OBBB in 2025 because, according to Massie, it did too much to secure the border.
Trump mercilessly trashed Massie in 2020--calling him a "disaster" for America and Kentucky and saying he should be thrown out of the GOP entirely--but Massie easily swatted that away and won 81-19, so you can't say he only lost because of Trump. He went toe-to-toe with Trump on COVID in 2020 and won overwhelmingly.
Massie lost because he went from being perceived as a quirky but lovable nerd who seemed to genuinely believe everything he said, to looking like a clout-chasing influencer who cared more about getting TV time with Democrats on an issue he clearly never cared about until five minutes ago than he did about representing his voters.
We'll never know what caused the apparent personality change--maybe it was the death of his wife, maybe it was the McCarthy race followed by McCarthy's ouster, or maybe it was a desire for notoriety or media acclaim and a lucrative podcasting career outside of Congress--but the drastic change was undeniable, as was the seeming lack of interest in much of anything happening in Kentucky.
Blame Trump, blame Israel, blame Epstein, blame the tragic death of a spouse, I don't care. But you cannot just wave away 2020 Massie going face-to-face with the Trump machine and winning in a rout only to get smoked six years later.
Massie's voters didn't really change all that much, but he did, and they noticed.
Taqiyya Qatarlson rejects these explanations. For him, the failure of his Nazi agenda means that the Republican Party is dead, MAGA is dead, and America is a conquered nation controlled by evil Jews in Israel.
Shadow of Ezra
@ShadowofEzra
Tucker Carlson says the Republican Party is officially dead after it colluded with a foreign country to buy Thomas Massie's seat.
He says it is immoral to support the current Republican Party because it supports the killing of children and is now against free speech.
Because the faggot that this faggot supported lost, that means that "democracy is fake."
Marco Foster
@MarcoFoster_
Tucker Carlson: "This is the saddest moment in a long time. It’s not just the death of Thomas Massie's immediate political career. It's obviously the death of MAGA, whatever that was. but it’s also of course the end of the Republican party. Nobody supports this"
This is what all the NeverTrumpers said as they flounced in 2015-2016.
Taqiyya Qatarlson also claims the election was stolen by "mail in" ballots. He says he has no evidence of this, but invites the Nazi losers who watch him to do their own "sleuthing" and prove his conspiracy for him.
This is Candace Owens' business model -- invent a fake and gay conspiracy theory, then tell her legions of "mommysleuths" to gather non-existent evidence to prove it.
Is that true? Did Gallrein -- "whoever that is" -- really only win due to "mail-in ballots"?
Well a brain damaged alcoholic substance abuser who had a psychotic break is saying it, so no, it's not true.
Eyal Yakoby
@EYakoby
13h
Tucker Carlson's latest video claims Thomas Massie's loss was due to "mail-in ballots."
Except Gallrein won both early voting and Election Day.
Tucker Carlson is a liar.
Tuq'r also dismisses the existence of Islamic terrorism. He scoffs, "Islamic terrorism -- whatever that is."
People are pointing out he seemed to know what the term meant for 30 years as he's railed about Islamic terrorism since the first World Trade Center bombing in 1995.
But now he says he doesn't even know what Islamic jihad meanx, suggesting it's a propaganda term invented by Perfidious Jews to con Christians.
Remember, he really cares about the Christians. He's a real Christian, too! He discovered the Bible two years ago when his secular ass got fired and he realized he'd have to cultivate a new audience willing to pay his fat ass $10 per month for his "analysis."
By the way, that's another way in which the Woke Reich shows it's just another branch of woke leftism. As many have noted, it's impossible to even have a political conversation with a leftist because they're favorite tactic is pretending they don't understand the simplest points and pretending they are ignorant of the most basic, widely-known facts. They just don't know what you mean by "crime" or "illegal alien," you know!
And this is Tuq'r's favorite tactic now too. There are many, many things that Tuq'r Qarlson is suddenly ignorant about. When Piers Morgan stated that Israel was an "ally," Tuq'r objected "I don't even know what that means." Morgan explained he meant that Israel was a political ally of the United States, and Tuq'r again insisted "I don't even know what a political ally means.'
He says he doesn't know what "MAGA" means any more, or what the Republican Party is any more. He doesn't know what "democracy" means (though he does seem to know because he also says he wants people in a "revolutionary, even violent" frame of mind, and then pretends he didn't say that).
He doesn't know if Hamas is a "terror organization." He says he doesn't know what that means, and adds "it seems like a political organization to me."
Wait -- so you do know what "terror organization" means, because you just contrasted that with "political organization."
Is it possible, Tuq'r, that you're lying about not knowing what basic words mean?
And now - no idea what "islamic jihad" is.
Someone linked a headline about ISIS murdering 40 more Christians in Nigeria, with Tuq'r's quote -- "IsLaMiC tErRoRiSm -- WhAtEvEr ThAt Is" underneath.
The America First guy who thinks Israel -- by which he means "American Jews" -- stole Massie's seat doesn't oppose all foreign funding of political messaging, of course:
🚨Tucker Carlson's media venture got $15M from a billionaire jihadist in late 2023.
Tucker began to become more and more anti-jew and more and more pro-muslim around this same time period.
Tucker claims everyone is "bought" by AIPAC to distract you from noticing he's been… pic.twitter.com/jzAXyiTywY
— Pro-America | Politics & Markets (@Pro__Trading) May 21, 2026
One more thing: In case you have any doubt about this, Tuq'r Carlson is a Nazi and Holocaust denier. He keeps on having one Holocaust denier after another to discuss their interesting theories.
He's just asking questions, you know! (((They))) don't like it when you ask questions!
Joel Mowbray
@joelmowbray
🚨 EXCLUSIVE -- Tucker Carlson's latest guest, @OwenBenjamin, is no ordinary Holocaust denier.
Benjamin claims there's "zero evidence" Hitler ordered the Holocaust, which he labels a hoax.
Further, he claimed that the Nazis RESCUED Jews by sending them to Auschwitz and other concentration camps only "because there's mass city evacuatuations because of [Allied] bombing."
This clip from 2022 is representative of Benjamin's many other Holocaust-related rants.
In short, Holocaust denial is central to his public persona, as part of an obsessive focus on Jews.
Yet despite this, Tucker's brother Buckley yesterday praised Benjamin as a "great American Hero [and] Truth-teller."
And Tucker didn't just interview him, but fawned that his guest "weaves sharp-witted satire with deep dives into the complexities of the human condition."
But if you watch this clip -- which, again, is one of many similar rants -- one obvious question comes to mind:
How could anyone view Benjamin as a "sharp-witted" analyst of "the complexities of the human condition"?
Lazy Leftist Zillennials (Including Grandma Taylor Lorenz) Discover a New Right: The Right for People to Order Expensive Food on DoorDash for Every Single Meal
—Disinformation Expert Ace
I use DoorDash and the others too much. And when I do, I feel kinda bad about it. Once in a while is one thing, but ordering out multiple times per week is -- here's a word that Gen Z and the Millennials need to learn -- indulgent.
And lazy. It takes about 45 minutes to batch cook simple meals for 3-4 days. And it's cheap. Yes, eggs are more expensive now, but when I batch cook scrambled eggs with ham, pepper, and onion, it costs about $20 to make five meals.
But Taylor Lorenz, joined by a bunch of basket-case lazybones "spooners" -- people who claim they only have a few "spoons" of energy during the day so society will just have to carry them on their backs -- begin arguing that some people don't have the "ability" to cook and are just too tired to take any steps to feed themselves besides pushing a few buttons on their phones (and begging their parents to send them more money).
Boy these "young" people sure are "tired" a lot, aren't they? Kind of like Joe Biden. Who is 84 years old.
If Joe Biden tells me he's too tired to cook, I get it.
If a twenty-something layabout who works an "email job" tells me she just can't find the time or energy a couple of times per week to make scrambled eggs or fry up burgers and put them in the fridge to be microwaved later... well a lot f 23 year olds are just ready for retirement, I guess.
Put them in group homes and put up tall walls around them. Wouldn't want the senile young invalids wandering off.
The poorest ppl often don’t have the capacity to make home cooked meals for many reasons, but that’s not stepping “leftists” for advocating to deny poor people access to pre cooked meals and things like rotisserie chicken. They cannot ever imagine a better world! It’s incredible
Anybody who claims they don't have time to make a sandwich should be required to post their screentime stats
Yes, of course you can start simple. But that’s predominantly not what is being pushed on people by search and social media when it comes to cooking content.
Did you catch that? This delicate lily says that he can't cook the luxe meals he sees being advertised on TikTok and YouTube by food "creators."
So because he doesn't know how to cook the Hottest New Recipes, he shouldn't have to learn how to grill a fried cheese sandwich, either. (Which btw I had a month ago and it was incredible.)
And this is also bullshit anyway, because 75% of TikTok/YouTube cooking content is super-simple "One Pan" casserole recipes where the whole selling point is it takes one single pan, four or five ingredients, 45 minutes at 450 and you're done.
Seriously go to YouTube and search for "One Pan." One Pan is a big category of social media cooking.
But this Precious Princess wants to eat truffled avocado toast and doesn't know how to make it so people are going to have to pay for his DoorDash!
(BTW, I figure you can make truffled avocado toast with, and this is just off the top of my dome, toast, avocado, and truffle oil.)
Pretty sure they are throwing the book at Luigi Magione because he committed first-degree murder pic.twitter.com/YXnc8ywCQu
Oh, and in addition to being lazy, helpless, Useless Mouths and self-made invalids, they're also completely illiterate.
This trend started when a high school kid handed a card containing a simple sentence -- something like "the silhouette of the clothes was extraordinary but somewhat gauche" -- to fellow students and school officials and most could not read the words "silhouette" or "gauche" and could not say what the sentence meant.
Many were tripped up by "extraordinary."
English-speaking, American students couldn't read, pronounce, or comprehend the following sentence:
"She wore a silhouette of clothes that were extraordinary but gauche"
Ameican students lack of reading comprehension is well-documented.
— Mushtaq Bilal, PhD (@MushtaqBilalPhD) May 3, 2026
I don't see how we survive this. I really don't.
These people not only don't work, but they have convinced themselves (and their Democrat politicians) that they can't work. They are literally helpless invalids of their own making.
Crime Skyrocketed During Biden's Open Borders Regime and Plummeted During Trump's Deporation Regime But I'm Sure This Is All a Right-Wing Coincidence, Racists
And the real numbers, for once in five years, are great.
The FBI released preliminary crime data for 2025, and the numbers are stunning. Violent crime fell at a rate not seen in nearly a century, and the man overseeing the bureau is the same one the left has been trying to torch for months.
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropped more than 18% nationwide last year. Aggravated assault fell more than 7%. Rape declined nearly 8%. Robbery cratered by about 18.5%. All told, violent crime dropped about 9.3% overall; there were roughly 1.1 million fewer violent crimes than in 2024.
"The 2025 crime data in this report shows the single largest decrease in violent crime and murder since 1937 -- as well as huge decreases across the board in terms of aggravated assault, rape, and robbery," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.
Property crime wasn't far behind. It dropped by about 12.4%, translating to approximately 5.2 million fewer property offenses than the year before. The data comes from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which pulled information from more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies -- covering roughly 96% of policing across the country.
This is what happens when you have a tough-on-crime administration running the country.
Patel credited the transformation happening inside the bureau. "Over the last 14 months, we made major transformations at the FBI, and these results show those changes are working." He also pointed to his "back the blue" commitment -- backing law enforcement rather than undermining it -- as central to the approach.
Matt Margolis points out that this is the reason the left is so insane to take out Kash Patel with absurd attacks: They need the pubic to believe that crime is just the cost of doing business and nothing can be done about it, so Shut Up Racist Peasants and Accept The Occasional Beating from a Lunatic Homeless Thug or Rape by a Criminal Illegal Alien.
If Trump and Patel are successful in driving down crime, the public is aware this isn't just the cost of doing business. It's a choice, and one we can choose against.
Steven Miller made that point about Democrat Disaster Governance:
This is one of the keys of his campaign. Nonprofits pay a lot of people to not solve the problem they claim to be solving. Remember when Mr. Beast went to Africa and built two clean water wells, and the NGO nonprofits over there criticized him for it, as some white savior complex… https://t.co/m8z8wKDlwR
The three teenagers in Austin who joyrode around shooting people were previously jailed illegal aliens that the Austin DA let out of jail without telling ICE to prevent their deportation.
So now this poor guy who was walking his dogs on a Sunday has bullet holes in him.
Those of you who are longtime Not Watchers of Stephen Colbert will not enjoy this flashback of Colbert dancing with Chuck Schumer while wearing ostentatious covid masks
Rush Limbaugh was an innovator in so many ways, including being among the first to not watch Stephen Colbert
DNI Tulsi Gabbard tenders her resignation for June 30, says her husband has been diagnosed with a rare bone cancer and she will have to help him through this
Podcast: CBD and Jim Lakely of The Heartland Institute chat about Heartland's two recent discussions: The affordability crisis in America, and The UN retreating from their most maniacal climate projections. Along the way we talk Democrat insanity and the changing electoral map...and more!
After threatening that the "clock is ticking" for renewed strikes on Iran, Trump once again calls them off to give negotiating a chance. I can't even cover this any more. It's embarrassing. It's like covering the endless negotiations over DHS funding. Trump is going to drag this out through the midterms and then lose them.
Note to the president: At some point, allowing the Regime to remain in power without actually forcing them to give up nukes is just a back-door, unacknowledged renewal of the Obama policy. Well, I guess we just have to wait for their economy to collapse and their troops to desert.
Podcast: Sefton and CBD are joined by Jeff Carter, candidate for NV treasurer, and seasoned finance professional, for a discussion of the issues facing Nevadans, and the larger financial challenges in America.
Few people remember that Norm MacDonald began his career as a ventriloquist MacDonald's old partner Adam Egot revealed that MacDonald repurposed a bit with one of his ventriloquist dolls -- that he was a "bad guy" who "didn't believe the Holocaust happened" -- for the Norm MacDonald show, in which he claimed Egot didn't believe in the Holocaust.
Funniest thing I've read about the Virginia mess. Back when they were hustling the referendum through the assembly both Senators, Warner and Kaine, advised them to go slow and play by the rules. Louise Lucas said she respected them but didn't need advice from the "cuck chair" in the corner. The gerrymandering was overturned and Louise is heading for the big house. Edward G. Robinson voice "where's your cuck now?"
Posted by: Smell the Glove
"Ahhhhh ahh I put my career on the line for Louise Lucas and Jay Jones thinking they'd vault me into presidential contention and we ended up costing Democrats 20 House seats and unleashing a Reverse Dobbs ahhhhh ahhh"
"It's f**king f**ked." -- reportedly a genuine comment offered by a "senior Labour source" Correction: I wrote that Labour is losing 88% (now 87%) of the seats it is "defending." I think that's wrong. The right way to say it is the seats they are contesting -- that is, they don't necessarily already hold these seats, but they have put up a candidate to run for the seat. It's still very bad but not as bad as losing 87% of the seats they already held.
Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat
🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER
He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight
It's over
"The end of the two party system in the UK" as first the Fake Conservatives and now Labour chooses political suicide rather than simply STOPPING THE INVASION Incidentally, the only reason this didn't already happen in the US is because of the Very Bad Orange Man (who is right on 85% of all policy calls and extremely, existentially right on 15% of them)
No political party that is NOT also a doomsday religious cult would EVER choose a cataclysmic loss -- and possible extinction as a party -- to support a toxically unpopular favoritism of NON-CITIZEN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS over actual citizen voters.
.JPG)
